The Mapparium idea reminded me of an old idea I had. The Mapparium CD rom. It would show the world map, and one could zoom in or out, like mapquest. Political boundaries are marked; you can zoom down to city level. At the bottom is a time slide. As you slide, boundaries jump and shift - for example, Germania would condense into the german states which then coalesce into germany, explode in size during the conquests of WWII, split to east and west then recondense. Poland's border flickers like a flame as the years slide past. Cities die and spring into existence. At any given point you can stop and explore the world - perhaps you have noticed the sudden explosion of the territory marked Ottoman Empire and so at the time of that surge you can click on it and learn what they were up to that year. Individual cities would also be clickable. You have noticed Babylon falls off the map. Click it and find out why. There would be further links to cultural and religious squibs appropriate for period and place.
I think this is better than a physical mapparium because of the ease with which you could appreciate sequence using the time slider.-- bungston, Nov 14 2002 (?) The Origianal Mapparium Idea http://www.halfbake...seum_20Of_20HistoryStop! Theif! [tyskland, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004] Animaps http://www-personal.../sum98/animaps.htmlGeneral description. [Nick@Nite, Oct 17 2004] Animap CD http://www.goldbug.com/AniMap.htmlWell, Baked, I guess. [Nick@Nite, Oct 17 2004] I'm not to sure of the rules concerning this, but i have an inkling that perhaps this should be added as an anotation to the original idea, and not posted as a seperate idea. But then, i am new and not sure.-- tyskland, Nov 14 2002 I should have put a link to the Mapparium idea - sorry. But I contend that Animap is a feeble shadow of the glorius Mapparium CD. Animap has got no time slider and no info about the dead towns you can find.-- bungston, Nov 14 2002 In the past, I posted a couple of ideas which were derivatives of ideas posted & felt cheap. (Not to be confused with ideas which I had no knowledge there were similar & halfbaked incarnations - yet kept because of fundamental differences).If someone posts an original idea - help it along best you can via annotation. If someone posts an annotation which contains the obvious seeds of a new idea - let them know they've got first dibs on halfbaking the idea.Don't rain on someone else's parade and steal their thunder at the same time.-- thumbwax, Nov 23 2002 gotta include population densities, too as well as subcountries (states provinces etc)-- FlyingToaster, Sep 04 2009 No need for a CD-Rom in the age of Google Maps! But I definitely like the idea, it would be great for elementary school history classes.-- Twist, Sep 05 2009 random, halfbakery