Jakub Marian is a Czech cartographer, whose maps give a fascinating and different take on the world from above.
His latest creation depicts Europe, but instead of names countries are given the autocomplete of a question about the country.
The question is “Why did (country name) … ?” and the answers, taken from Google in the US, give a revealing incite into both the Americans using the search engine and the European countries themselves.
Others are intriguingly specific however, such as Sweden’s “ban Christmas lights”, referring to a fake report that the country banned them to avoid offending Muslims – the truth was reportedly a ban on lights being put on poles for safety reasons.
Norway’s “knight a penguin” refers to the similarly bizarre story of Nils Olav I, II and II, three penguins adopted and honoured by the Norwegian military – the second of whom was knighted in 2008 and is pictured below with his King’s Guard over which he was colonel-in-chief.
Others of note about Europe include one for Valentine’s Day which showed all the different ways to say “I love you” in different nations.
