Google Earth has implemented a new layer which shows how WWII bombing raids affected various cities.

Many of us have heard stories, read books and watched films which show the many impacts of WWII across the world. Today we’re giving you another way to understand this period in time – by exploring a new set of historical aerial images, taken over European cities during World War II, via the historical imagery feature in Google Earth. They can now be compared directly to images from the present day.

The historical imagery feature gives people a unique perspective on the events of the past using today’s latest mapping technology. We hope that this World War II imagery will enable all of us to understand our shared history in a new way and to learn more about the impact of the war on the development of our cities.

Images taken in 1943 show the effect of wartime bombing on more than 35 European towns and cities. Imagery for Warsaw, which was heavily destroyed at the time, is available from both years 1935 and 1945. They remind us all of the devastating impact of war on the people in those cities and also the remarkable way in which urban environments are reconstructed and regenerated over time.

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A 17th century road map of England, which shows all 73 roads the country had at the time, is set to hit the auction block.

The 17th Century work by John Ogilby – ‘Britannia Volume the First, or an Illustration of the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales’, was hailed at the time as a “landmark” in road -mapping.

A first edition, dating from 1675, contains 100 double pages of black and white maps laid out in continuous strips depicting 73 major roads and cross-roads across England and Wales, although most of them are routes in and out of of London.

The work also represents the first time in England when an atlas was prepared on a uniform scale, at one inch to a mile, based on the statute of 1,760 yards to the mile.

Free.edu has posted an interesting list showcasing 20 fascinating ancient maps and why they are cool.

Modern and Completely Correct Map of the Entire World
Creator: Joan Blaeu
Date: 1659
Why it’s cool: Modern at the time, yes. Completely correct, not so much. The map reveals the limitations of knowledge regarding the west coast of North America, the Arctic, and New Holland (present-day Australia).

The lost Roman city of Altinum has been found near Venice using areial photography of the region.

The bustling harbour of Altinum near Venice was one of the richest cities of the Roman empire. But terrified by the impending invasion of the fearsome Germanic Emperor Attila the Hun, its inhabitants cut their losses and fled in AD452, leaving behind a ghost town of theatres, temples and basilicas.

Altinum was never reoccupied and gradually sunk into the ground. The city lived on in Venetian folk tales and historical artefacts but its exact position, size and wealth gradually faded into obscurity.

A Danish expert claims that the 15th century Vinland Map, the first known map to show part of America before Christopher Columbus arrived, is almost certainly genuine.

Controversy has swirled around the map since it came to light in the 1950s, many scholars suspecting it was a hoax meant to prove that Vikings were the first Europeans to land in North America — a claim confirmed by a 1960 archaeological find. Doubts about the map lingered even after the use of carbon dating as a way of establishing the age of an object.

“All the tests that we have done over the past five years — on the materials and other aspects — do not show any signs of forgery,” Rene Larsen, rector of the School of Conservation under the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, told Reuters.