Amsterdam
Rings of canals around the old centre, on the south bank of the IJ.
Atlas
Observed geography of real places
Atlas is an open-source generative cartography project. It turns real terrain, streets, water, parks, and other geographic data into downloadable artwork.
Each piece starts from measured data: elevation from satellite and survey models, and roads, rivers, and coastlines mapped by OpenStreetMap contributors. The images are generated live in your browser when you load or download them. The aim is to show what makes a place itself: the river a city bends around, the ice that carved a valley, the delta a river builds where it meets the sea.
Cities
All cities
Austin
The Colorado River and its Highland Lakes, where the Hill Country meets the Blackland Prairie.
Bangkok
The Chao Phraya River winding through a flat delta city.
Barcelona
The Eixample grid between the Mediterranean and the Collserola hills.
Beijing
Ring roads around the old city on the flat North China Plain.
Berlin
The Spree, the Havel, and the lakes of a city on a flat glacial plain.
Budapest
The Danube between the Buda hills and the flat plain of Pest.
Cape Town
Table Mountain above Table Bay, with False Bay to the south-east.
Chicago
A near-perfect grid against Lake Michigan, split by the Chicago River.
Chongqing
The Jialing River meets the Yangtze between long parallel ridges.
Guilin
The Li River winds through the city among isolated karst hills.
Hangzhou
West Lake ringed by hills, beside the Qiantang River.
Hanoi
The Red River and the lakes of the old city, including West Lake and Hoan Kiem.
Hong Kong
Victoria Harbour between Kowloon and the steep slopes of Hong Kong Island.
Istanbul
The Bosphorus between Europe and Asia, and the Golden Horn.
Kathmandu
A city filling a bowl-shaped valley ringed by hills, drained by the Bagmati River.
Lisbon
Hills on the north shore of the Tagus estuary.
Mumbai
A peninsula of joined islands between the Arabian Sea and Thane Creek.
Nairobi
A highland city with Nairobi National Park at its southern edge.
New Orleans
The city in a bend of the Mississippi, with Lake Pontchartrain to the north.
New York
Manhattan between the Hudson and East rivers, with Brooklyn, Queens, and the Upper Bay.
Paris
The Seine curving through a city of radial boulevards.
Pittsburgh
The Allegheny and Monongahela rivers join at the Point to form the Ohio.
Pokhara
Phewa Lake and the deep gorge of the Seti Gandaki below the Annapurna range.
Quito
A long, narrow city in an Andean valley below the Pichincha volcano.
Rio de Janeiro
Guanabara Bay and the granite peaks of Tijuca, Corcovado, and Sugarloaf.
San Francisco
The hilly tip of the peninsula, the Golden Gate, and the bay with Oakland and Berkeley across it.
Seattle
A city on the ridges between Puget Sound and Lake Washington.
Shanghai
The Huangpu River curving through the city toward the Yangtze estuary.
Srinagar
Dal Lake and the Jhelum River in the Kashmir Valley.
Taipei
A basin city where the Tamsui, Keelung, and Xindian rivers meet, ringed by mountains.
Tokyo
A dense street web on Tokyo Bay, crossed by the Sumida and Arakawa rivers.
Toronto
A street grid on the north shore of Lake Ontario, cut by the Don and Humber river ravines.
Ulaanbaatar
A city stretched along the Tuul River valley, between mountains.
Varanasi
The old city lines the west bank of a crescent bend of the Ganges.
Venice
Islands of the old city in a shallow lagoon, linked to the mainland by a causeway.
Terrain
All terrain
Aconcagua · Ridgelines
The highest mountain in the Americas, in the Andes of Mendoza.
Annapurna · Ridgelines
Annapurna I and Machapuchare around the Annapurna Sanctuary.
Cho Oyu · Ridgelines
The sixth-highest mountain, west of Everest on the Nepal–Tibet border.
Denali · Ridgelines
The highest mountain in North America, in the Alaska Range.
Denali · Contour Fields
Elevation bands of Denali in the Alaska Range, with the Kahiltna and Ruth glaciers left empty.
Dhaulagiri · Ridgelines
The seventh-highest mountain, across the Kali Gandaki gorge from Annapurna.
Franz Josef & Fox Glaciers · Contour Fields
Two glaciers descending from the Southern Alps toward the West Coast rainforest.
Glacier Peak · Ridgelines
A remote volcano deep in the North Cascades.
Grand Canyon · Contour Fields
Elevation bands of the Grand Canyon, with the Colorado River cut between the South and North rims.
Grand Canyon · Ridgelines
The Colorado River's canyon between the South and North rims.
K2 · Ridgelines
The second-highest mountain on Earth, in the Karakoram above the Baltoro and Godwin-Austen glaciers.
K2 · Contour Fields
Elevation bands of the K2 massif in the Karakoram, with the Baltoro and Godwin-Austen glaciers left empty.
Kangchenjunga · Ridgelines
The third-highest mountain on Earth, on the border of Nepal and Sikkim.
Kilimanjaro · Ridgelines
The highest mountain in Africa, a volcano rising alone from the plains.
Kilimanjaro · Contour Fields
Elevation bands of Kilimanjaro rising about 5,000 m above the plains, its summit ice left empty.
Lhotse · Ridgelines
The fourth-highest mountain, joined to Everest by the South Col.
Makalu · Ridgelines
The fifth-highest mountain, an isolated four-sided pyramid east of Everest.
Manaslu · Ridgelines
The eighth-highest mountain, in the Mansiri Himal of central Nepal.
Matterhorn · Ridgelines
The four-faced pyramid above Zermatt and Breuil-Cervinia.
Matterhorn · Contour Fields
Elevation bands around the Matterhorn above Zermatt and Breuil-Cervinia, glaciers left empty.
Mont Blanc · Ridgelines
The highest peak of the Alps, between Chamonix and Courmayeur.
Mont Blanc · Contour Fields
Elevation bands of the Mont Blanc massif between Chamonix and Courmayeur, glaciers left empty.
Mount Adams · Ridgelines
Washington’s second-highest peak, a broad volcano east of St. Helens.
Mount Baker · Ridgelines
A heavily glaciated volcano in the North Cascades.
Mount Everest · Ridgelines
The highest mountain on Earth, with Lhotse and Nuptse, on the Nepal–Tibet border.
Mount Everest · Contour Fields
Filled elevation bands around Everest, Lhotse, and Nuptse, with the Khumbu glaciers left empty.
Mount Fuji · Ridgelines
The symmetrical stratovolcano, the highest mountain in Japan.
Mount Fuji · Contour Fields
Elevation bands of Mount Fuji, a near-symmetric stratovolcano, with the Fuji Five Lakes to the north.
Mount Hood · Ridgelines
Oregon’s highest mountain, a glaciated volcano east of Portland.
Mount Hood · Contour Fields
Elevation bands of Mount Hood, Oregon's highest peak, with its glaciers left empty.
Mount Olympus · Ridgelines
The highest peak of the Olympic Mountains, ringed by glaciers.
Mount Rainier · Contour Fields
Filled elevation bands around the summit, with glaciers left empty.
Mount Rainier · Ridgelines
The glaciated volcano above the Cascade foothills.
Mount Shuksan · Ridgelines
A glaciated peak of rock, not a volcano, east of Mount Baker.
Mount St. Helens · Ridgelines
The volcano whose 1980 eruption left a crater open to the north.
Mount St. Helens · Contour Fields
Elevation bands of Mount St. Helens, with the 1980 crater open to the north and Spirit Lake below it.
Teide & Las Cañadas · Contour Fields
The Teide volcano, 3,715 m, rising from the Las Cañadas caldera.
Yosemite Valley · Ridgelines
A glacier-carved valley between El Capitan and Half Dome.
Hydrology
All hydrology
Brahmaputra
The braided Brahmaputra in Assam around Majuli, one of the largest river islands.
Ganges–Brahmaputra Delta
The Sundarbans, a mangrove delta of tidal channels where the Ganges and Brahmaputra reach the Bay of Bengal.
Irrawaddy Delta
The Irrawaddy's delta on the Andaman Sea, west of Yangon.
Lena Delta
The Lena's Arctic delta on the Laptev Sea, a maze of channels and thaw lakes.
Mekong Delta
The Mekong reaching the South China Sea through its many distributaries in southern Vietnam.
Mississippi River Delta
The Birdfoot delta, where the Mississippi splits into passes into the Gulf of Mexico.
Nile Delta
The Nile fanning out between Cairo and the Mediterranean, with its canals and coastal lakes.
Okavango Delta
An inland delta, where the Okavango spreads into the Kalahari and never reaches the sea.
Rhine–Meuse Delta
Where the Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt reach the North Sea through the Dutch delta.
Yangtze Estuary
The mouth of the Yangtze at Shanghai, with Chongming Island in the estuary.
Coasts & Islands
All coasts & islands
Ha Long Bay
About 1,600 limestone islands and islets in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Hardangerfjord
The middle of a 179 km fjord, with the Folgefonna ice cap to the south.
Lofoten Wall
A chain of steep mountain islands rising from the Norwegian Sea.
Milford Sound
A glacial fiord running from the Tasman Sea between peaks over 1,600 m.
Sam Ford Fjord
A fjord on Baffin Island lined with granite walls more than 1,000 m high.
Santorini
A flooded volcanic caldera ringed by the islands of Thera and Therasia.
Formations
All formations
Bardenas Reales
Clay and sandstone badlands carved into mesas and gullies in Navarre.
Crater Lake
A lake in the caldera of Mount Mazama, which collapsed about 7,700 years ago.
Great Rift Valley
The floor of the Eastern Rift around Lake Naivasha, between the Mau and Aberdare escarpments.
Lake Toba
The lake in the Toba supervolcano caldera, with Samosir island rising in its middle.
Manicouagan Reservoir
A ring-shaped reservoir filling the eroded moat of an impact crater about 214 million years old.
Namib Sand Sea
Star and linear dunes of the Namib around the Sossusvlei clay pan.
Richat Structure
Concentric rings of eroded rock about 40 km across in the Sahara.
Þingvellir
A rift valley where the North American and Eurasian plates pull apart, beside Þingvallavatn.