A map for visualizing history.

Policarta is an interactive historical world map for exploring the changing territorial extent of nations, empires, and other polities over time.

Data and sources

The global polity layer is based on the Cliopatria / Seshat Global History Databank, adapted and curated for map display. Physical geography is derived from Natural Earth data. Source geometries are simplified and clipped to the coastline so they can be explored smoothly in the browser.