The map above is a political map of the world centered on Europe and Africa. It shows the location of most of the world's countries and includes their names where space allows.

Representing a round earth on a flat map requires some distortion of the geographic features no matter how the map is done. We have used a Mercator projection for this map because it is the projection most commonly used in schools. On this map, geographic boundaries that trend north-south appear as vertical lines, geographic boundaries that trend east-west appear as horizontal lines. This type of projection causes a minimum of country-shape distortion near the equator, a small amount of distortion at mid-latitudes, but extreme distortion near the poles. For that reason, the map does not extend to the north and south poles.

Buy a World Wall Map

 
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Use Google Earth Free

 Google Earth is a free download that you can use to view close-up satellite images of Earth on your desktop computer or mobile phone.Get Google Earth. 

World Map of Cities at Night

 NASA created a world map that gives you a view of Earth from space at night. World Map of cities at Night. 

Satellite Image Maps of U.S. States

 View each of the 50 U.S. states in a large satellite image from the LandSat Satellite.View States.  

CIA Political Map of the World

 
Political maps of the world prepared by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. 

CIA Time Zone Map of the World

 The United States Central Intelligence Agency standard time zone map of the world in .pdf format. Easy-to-read. Get the CIA World Time Zone Map. 

World Country Outline Maps

 Zoomable .pdf maps of the world showing the outlines of major countries. Get a world outline map.  

World Physical Map

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This is a large 33" by 54" wall map with the world's physical features shown.
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Physical Map of the World

Shown above
The map shown here is a terrain relief image of the world with the boundaries of major countries shown as white lines. It includes the names of the world's oceans and the names of major bays, gulfs, and seas. Lowest elevations are shown as a dark green color with a gradient from green to dark brown to gray as elevation increases. This allows the major mountain ranges and lowlands to be clearly visible.

This map is also a Mercator projection centered on Europe and Africa. A scale of miles is not shown on these maps because the scale changes with distance north and south of the equator. Scale is highly exaggerated as distance from the equator increases.   

Countries Labeled on the World Country Map: 

We were able to show 144 world countries and territories on the map at the top of this page. The United States Department of State recognizes 195 independent countries. We were not able to show every one of these countries on the political map above because many of them were too small to be drawn at this scale. You can find a complete list of countries recognized by the State Department on their "Independent States in the World" webpage. A list of the 144 labeled countries and territories on our map is shown below.

Afghanistan
Algeria
Angola
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burma
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Cote d'Ivoire
Cyprus Czech Republic
Dem. Rep. of the Congo
Denmark
Djibouti
Ecuador
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
eSwatini
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
French Guiana
Gabon
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Greenland
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Lithuania
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Mali
Mauritania
Mexico
Moldova
Mongolia
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands New Caledonia
New Zealand
Niger
Nigeria
North Korea
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Republic of the Congo
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Korea
South Sudan
Spain
Sri Lanka Sudan
Suriname
Svalbard
Sweden
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
The Gambia
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
U.A.E.
Uganda
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Western Sahara
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe    Copyright information: The images on this page were composed by Angela King and Brad Cole and are copyright by Geology.com © 2008. These images are not available for use beyond our websites. If you would like to share them with others please link to this page. The maps were produced using digital vector graphics licensed from and copyright by Map Resources © 2008.