Digital maps can help us understand the world better and enable us to track change in the landscape when it happens very suddenly, because of a flood or a typhoon for example. But as the launch of the Google Maps Gallery shows, it can also show the changes and constants that define an area over the centuries.

Here are three very old maps you can now explore with the new Maps Gallery. Expand the maps below by clicking on the square at the top right, then use the slider to get a glimpse of the old map and the modern one at the same time.

Tokyo 1680
Zoom to the palace to see how little has changed over the years in that part of the city formerly known as Edo. The map also shows how Edo, the city of rivers, became Tokyo, the city of major roads that run over rivers.

Map from the David Rumsey Map Collection: Hayashi, Yoshinaga, The East Asian Library at the University of California, Berkeley
The Philippines 1902
Explore the ports and lighthouses, post offices and telegraph stations in this extraordinarily detailed map of the Southern Philippine Islands.

Map from The National Geographic Society

India 1804 
This map was based on surveys by the East India Company, which had the British monopoly on trade with India.
Map from the David Rumsey Map Collection by James Rennell, Thomas Kitchen, Robert Laurie and James Whittle
Maps Gallery works like an interactive digital atlas. You can explore historic city plans, school ratings, deforestation changes, climate trends, shipwrecks and up-to-date evacuation routes. In addition to finding these maps through Maps Gallery, they can be viewed in Google Earth and are discoverable through major search engines.

People can browse content from organizations such as National Geographic Society, the World Bank Group, and the United Nations Environmental Program, but this is just the beginning. With the goal of making this information more readily available to the world, Google Maps Gallery is now open to organizations with content for the public good.

Organizations interested in submitting content can apply to participate in Maps Gallery. To find out more read our FAQ. Together with governments, businesses and nonprofits, we can unlock the world’s geospatial data.

Posted by Jordan Breckenridge, Google Maps, Product Manager