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Hey guys was just told this place existed! I inverted the world map in Photoshop! Day and Night version :) [2000 x 1189] (i.imgur.com)

submitted ago by mygrapefruit

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[–]mygrapefruit[S] 120 points121 points ago

I'd like to point out, yes I know it isn't 100% realistically converted. I probably should have made the real ocean trenches as mountains but I left them alone. I'll update the map someday (or anyone else who has the time is free to do it!). Any constructive criticism is welcome though (at any time, PM me if you want), point out what I should change (like city locations as well) and I'll include it in the eventual next 'version'.

Night version here: http://imgur.com/a/FsH5C

[–]johnbarnshack 38 points39 points ago

I love this. For coastal cities it would be great if they were on the opposite side of the shore they are now on. Eg have New York be cenered around Long Island Bay, or have Cape Town be on the Bay of Good Hope.

[–]Eudaimonics 3 points4 points ago

That would be crazy for the Great Islands in the North American Ocean.

Between Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Chicago, Buffalo, Rochester, and Toronto's populations.

[–]Knubinator 15 points16 points ago

Antarctica is a landmass under all the ice, so it should be water in this map.

[–]Halofit 10 points11 points ago

It's a bunch of islands I belive. So it should be lots of lakes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AntarcticBedrock.jpg

[–]ironn1ck 6 points7 points ago

it is frozen, if you look at real antarctica, you dont see all the real lakes too

[–]thechao 10 points11 points ago

I don't know much about the current underwater mountain ranges, but did you use those? Or did you just invent your own?

[–]mygrapefruit[S] 22 points23 points ago

I meant those too when I said ocean trenches. Convex will be concave and vice versa. :P I'll probably invert the topology of the earth completely in the next version: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/pictures/GLOBALeb10colshade.jpg

[–]Trollfailbot 42 points43 points ago

If you're able to invert the topology please post it so I can beg Civ V modders to make it into a map.

[–]Minifig81 17 points18 points ago

If that happens, I am so reinstalling Civ V.

[–]kanaga 10 points11 points ago

Someone's already on it :D

http://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/y47si/can_somebody_turn_this_inverted_map_of_the_earth/c5s7xbx

[–]mavvv 9 points10 points ago

He finished

[–]pariah1165 0 points1 point ago

That was fast ;)

[–]fotografamerika 2 points3 points ago

/r/civ for the lazy. I would love to play that map.

[–]thechao 2 points3 points ago

Eeeexcellent! Also, the last supercontinent on Earth, Pangaea, probably had interior temperatures well in excess of 50 C (upwards of 65C in some models). For a landmass the size you're talking about, hit "desert" and call it a day =)

[–]mygrapefruit[S] 5 points6 points ago

Honestly I think I'll do different kinds of climate - like one realistic (desert I suppose), and one which matches the % of today's fauna coverage, a similar climate to Tellus, if that makes sense.

[–]Audiovore 18 points19 points ago

Related old world style map made by someone else.

Abyssia, which is if every height and depth were inverted and the volume of water stayed the same. Only 12% of the world would be land.

[–]spoolio 5 points6 points ago

Man, that Abyssia page was pretty cool until it suddenly took a turn into furry porn.

"The intelligent life of Abyssia will be completely different from Earth life because of the different conditions in which they evolve! That's why they look like fox-horses with human genitals. For further elucidation, here are several dozen drawings of them naked."

[–]Audiovore 1 point2 points ago

That is a bit weird, hadn't made it past the main page really...

[–]spoolio 2 points3 points ago

Y'know, though, I'm going to be open-minded and say I still recommend this page, even though half the links are broken and one of them is unexpectedly furry.

Disregard the other kind of porn (if you so choose). This is still map porn, especially on the sub-pages with detailed renderings of the continents.

[–]thechao 1 point2 points ago

This is comparable to the late cretaceous, when only 18% of the surface of the world was "dry land".

[–]thechao 2 points3 points ago

Flora? But now I want to see where the lions get to!

[–]xarvox 0 points1 point ago

Thing is, having so little oceanic crust would likely play bloody havoc with plate tectonics, and without that, the whole Earth system gets majorly bent out of shape...

[–]riomhaire 0 points1 point ago

I will love you forever.

[–]PepeAndMrDuck 9 points10 points ago

YOU NEED TO KEEP CLIMATE IN MIND.

Sorry to yell, but I thought it'd be important to include deserts only at 30 degrees N and S. And tropical areas on the ITCZ.

Also, like you said, make better use of prominent, pre-existing underwater geography such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Marianas trench.

I think this map is awesome! It's already my desktop background. :)

[–]Banko 2 points3 points ago

Ice should be covering the Green Ocean, for example.

[–]mystery310 1 point2 points ago

Just imagine all those lands.

[–]nelg 1 point2 points ago

I imagine (for my own map at least) that cramped places like 'Gibraltar Isthmus' and the strait between the Red and Arabian seas would be very strategical places for controlling shipping routes, so they surely have an ancient, fortified and thriving capital city, having changed rulers countless times. The 'Red Peninsula' is also a barrier for two oceans, so it's probably a very thriving country.

Mountains and hills in a temperate climate control rivers and freshwater, so population centres are concentrated on mountaneous regions and plains around them. Take India, where moist air from the sea hits the Himalayas and flows back in huge rivers, whereas the opposite side is completely arid. Conversely, Chile is dry and colder because of the Humboldt Current.

[–]fruicyjuit 47 points48 points ago

Hawaii is now some sort of awesome desert oasis.

[–]mpesh420 0 points1 point ago

strange considering the mauna kea on the big island is the biggest mountain on earth....

[–]Mumberthrax 32 points33 points ago

I wonder if the map would appear more aesthetically pleasing if the edges were in the middle of the African Ocean. Like, it would focus on the Pacific continent.

Regardless, awesome job. I like it.

[–]aaron036 19 points20 points ago

I was thinking the same thing so I did a quick edit on Paint. Look at that Pacific continent and Asian Ocean.

[–]Mumberthrax 25 points26 points ago

Okay, now it looks like it would be more aesthetically pleasing if it were flipped upside-down. :P

http://i.imgur.com/Vqhux.jpg

But I guess the more we mess with it the further away it gets from the original idea, maybe.

[–]Nuparurocks 33 points34 points ago

http://i.imgur.com/UFroV.jpg

I fixed the stitching line down the middle

[–]avsa 13 points14 points ago

I think this is a big improvement! I love when the community helps. For bonus points, I just created some 3D images of the inverted earth planet in orbit.

http://imgur.com/a/LIVc3

[–]NotLikeEverybodyElse 1 point2 points ago

How did you do this?

I've been not-wholeheartedly looking for a way to turn a map into a virtual globe like this for a tabletop game.

[–]avsa 2 points3 points ago

Making a tabletop game like everybody else?

Photoshop cs - make 3d shape from layer - sphere

Add some gradients for effects.

There are many other ways to do it though, the only good thing about a Mercator projection is that it translates nicely into a 3d sphere

[–]NotLikeEverybodyElse 3 points4 points ago

Awesome! Thanks a bunch!

I cannot consider my games complete until they have a proper map of AT LEAST the world in which the game is being played.

(The name is from a Kinks song, by the way. It's what I was listening to at the time I made this account.)

[–]Banko 0 points1 point ago

Absolutely awesome!

[–]void216 0 points1 point ago

Even when its inverted, Australia is still dangerous.

[–]LazyNecromancer 6 points7 points ago

You just inverted the inverted version of an inverted map

[–]TexasWithADollarsign -2 points-1 points ago

yO DAWG, i HERD YOU LIKE INVERSION

[–]Mumberthrax 1 point2 points ago

Awesome. I like the original, but I like this as well.

[–]Viraus2 0 points1 point ago

This is my canonical version of the map now. Excellent work!

[–]Ktai_Arterion 0 points1 point ago

By your efforts combined: GLORIOUS

[–]avsa 0 points1 point ago

I think it's a big improvement! Now make it another projection other than Mercator and call it a day!

[–]riomhaire 0 points1 point ago

I love you only slightly less than the OP.

[–]mygrapefruit[S] 14 points15 points ago

Yeah it would be cool if you could navigate! I wanted this, I was planning on trying to upload it on some flash site as a 360 panorama/globe, but got lazy. I want to make a bigger and more realistic version one day so then hopefully people can navigate (zoom in, spin around etc) by themselves. :)

[–]aaron036 3 points4 points ago

Awesome work! And if you ever do in 360, make sure to post the link! I'd love to see it.

[–]mygrapefruit[S] 8 points9 points ago

Letting Reddit know will be the first thing I'll do ;D

[–]Mrleibniz 1 point2 points ago

Can you please put political boundaries or at least continental boundaries :)

[–]bankcranium 30 points31 points ago

It is interesting to speculate where population centers and important strategic locations would be on this map...

The cape of land where Panama is would certainly be crucial to control in terms of shipping and naval superiority, kind of like Gibraltar. The North Sea and Mediterranean sea also look like they would be important. As well as the Atlantic plain off the coast of Africa, in terms of food production, but it would be hard to defend. I feel like I'm assessing a game of Civ.

[–]Durzo_Blint 9 points10 points ago

That was my first thought. I want this as a Civ Map.

[–]kanaga 7 points8 points ago

Someone's already on it :D

http://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/y47si/can_somebody_turn_this_inverted_map_of_the_earth/c5s7xbx

[–]redoswald 0 points1 point ago

It is always weird to play. I quit... however, I like playing inverted RISK maps.

[–]avsa 5 points6 points ago

The interesting part is that in this world sea navigation wouldn't be as important. Sure the American ocean would be a great center of trade between the pacific and Atlantic continents, but I don't think there would ever be an era of great navigations, since most of the world could be reached by land.

[–]Banko 4 points5 points ago

Travel by sea is more efficient, though. I can imagine a network of canals connecting the Asian Ocean with the Australian Sea (which would of course be filled with only poisonous fish!).

[–]Tineus 0 points1 point ago

There could be sea navigation from the West Pacific landmass to the Atlantic landmass since the Indian Ocean Mountains block a land route.

[–]Riksost 23 points24 points ago

Sjukt coolt!

Råkade komma in på ditt deviantart konto också och upptäckte att jag tillochmed visste vem du är!

Läste om dig i senaste FOTO, du är ju sjukt duktig! Gillade atom-bombs bilden som fan.

Hur lång tid tar det för dig att få ihop en sådan bild? Har personligen bara handkolorerat pyttelite analogt, samt lite i PS. Det är ju tidsödande och mina resultat blir mindre än acceptabla.

[–]1000timesinmyhead 24 points25 points ago

upvoting because i have no idea what this says.

[–]Riksost 10 points11 points ago

Haha! Just telling her that I'm amazed with her work and that I saw an article about her work in FOTO (a Swedish photography mag).

[–]Theropissed 14 points15 points ago

Or you just hexed reddit.

[–]Inoku 8 points9 points ago

All I saw was IHOP.

[–]mygrapefruit[S] 2 points3 points ago

Åååh vad kul att du läst om mig i FOTO!! Tack så mycket :D

Jag snittar runt en timme per bild, men vissa kan ta upp till 3 om de är högupplösta och har mycket detaljer.

Det gäller att använda rätt verktyg och ha en känsla för färg! Säg till om du behöver mer specifika tips.

[–]teenagehaiku 1 point2 points ago

en timme per bild

förvånande!

[–]burning_consciousnes 0 points1 point ago

Jag vill tacka er för att göra den här härliga kartan och för att skriva lite svenska eftersom jag inte ser det skrivet väldigt sällan. Min enda ingång för kartan skulle vara att försöka följa några mer grundläggande geografi och regler geologi. En hel del av de saker som nämns i de övriga kommentarer som flod, sjö och platser berg. Samt olika klimatzoner som öknar och tropikerna. Jag har använt Google Translate för att skriva denna kommentar, så även om jag skrev det, är Google ytterst ansvarig för vad du läser. Det var roligt att läsa alla svenska och försöka gissa vad det försökte säga. Jag undrar verkligen om några engelsktalande översätter detta och ta reda på vad den säger. fan, skit, röv, bröst, fitta, doodoo. Jag ber om ursäkt om jag förolämpar ...

[–]mygrapefruit[S] 0 points1 point ago

Och btw, här är bomb bilden i högupplöst form: http://i.imgur.com/Ovqie.jpg

[–]Riksost 0 points1 point ago

Woop, definitivt ny bakgrund! Brukar bara använda egna bilder. Men det här är i en annan liga :)

[–]nelg 1 point2 points ago

Wait you did this? Cool.

[–]nubbled21 20 points21 points ago

Shouldn't the ice caps be on fire?

This is great! Strong work

[–]mygrapefruit[S] 6 points7 points ago

haha :D

thanks

[–]Pointer1VB 50 points51 points ago

This took me way too long to figure out what was going on. First I thought you just flipped the map upside down and shifted it to give a different perspective, but then i couldn't make sense of any of the landmasses. I looked for North American and had no idea why none of the landmasses looked familiar at all. Then I looked at the ocean and realized that I'm an idiot.

[–]Fdurke 4 points5 points ago

Don't worry, I took me 5/10 minutes to be able to "see" what he did.

[–]sanderudam 1 point2 points ago

I still don't understand a shit.

[–]pdoubleya 1 point2 points ago

Sea is land and land is sea.

[–]sanderudam 1 point2 points ago

But are the mountains and things random or do they have any system?

[–]skirlhutsenreiter 2 points3 points ago

They don't correlate to seabed topography, but they seem to have been put in to make some sense of the new ocean shapes (e.g., Kamchatka is surrounded by mountains to explain why there's an inlet there).

[–]LazerShades 1 point2 points ago

Came to the comments for this. I'm an idiot.

[–]Brett_Favre_4 14 points15 points ago

This really fucked with my brain.

[–]spy_spy 10 points11 points ago

Accurate or not, this is really cool. Very well done. I would love to see the "next" version.

[–]Pupikal 16 points17 points ago

Obviously, the blue part of the map is land.

[–]LeGrandFromage9 2 points3 points ago

Can't unsee

[–]PurpleKerbie 5 points6 points ago

Needs to be made into a Civ map.

[–]jbobcat 7 points8 points ago

Compliment: This is so beautiful! All of my upvotes! Drool. Constructive criticism: Needs continental shelves!

[–]Nukeman 1 point2 points ago

And rivers

[–]Gillsolo 9 points10 points ago

Lake Baikal is the new Hawaii.

[–]skirlhutsenreiter 1 point2 points ago

A very cold Hawaii.

[–]Gillsolo 0 points1 point ago

Absolutely, hence the inversion of this map.

[–]skirlhutsenreiter 0 points1 point ago

I actually do wonder about weather and especially ocean currents in such a world. The proximity of the ocean would certainly make Baikal Island more temperate than Lake Baikal. But in addition, I could imagine the Eurasian Ocean getting a counterclockwise current going that would bring warm tropical water up past it. If so, it could have a British Isles climate.

[–]Gillsolo 1 point2 points ago

Amazing! What may be remarkable to consider is that if indeed Baikal Island maintains a climate similar to that of the British Isles, imagine the evolutionary possibilities coupled with that climate and the fact that it is quite a distance from a main continent.

[–]DaneBread 4 points5 points ago

Very cool. Are there higher resolution available?

I agree that you should have modeled the mountains after the sea-floor, it would fit in with the invertedness, and would relate to something that was weird - the placements of the cities in relations to mountains.

[–]Jetblast787 3 points4 points ago

I second the notion of a high resolution map. I would love to print this out large and pin it to my wall!

[–]riomhaire 1 point2 points ago

High resolution, seabed topography-matched, Pacific Desert-centred version of this is now my dream-poster. OP, if you're reading this I would pay money for such a thing.

[–]thanos023 6 points7 points ago

That is pretty freaking cool man. I love to imagine inverted or theoretic scenarios and you created a rather cool one.

digital high five

[–]thespite 5 points6 points ago

I really like this image. What process did you follow to create it? I've tried to map it into a sphere, but it seems like it's a mercator/cylindrical projection. I would really much like to create a mashup of geolocation with this inverted world :)

[–]mygrapefruit[S] 8 points9 points ago

1 made a layer of continent and land separately.

2 the forest texture (it covers the whole land layer). Then pasted mountains and the desert on top of that, very randomly and lazy until I thought it looked good :l it was the easy way out, I'll make it better next time

3 for the ocean I took screenshot from google maps and tried to align them somewhat to the shape of the continents

[–]Xavs42 2 points3 points ago

I really appreciate how you added a realistic rain shadow to the west of that big-ass mountain range (off what would be the west coast of the US).

[–]mygrapefruit[S] 0 points1 point ago

It's one big ass rain shadow xD and the only one

[–]PSIKOTICSILVER 2 points3 points ago

Someone please make a Civilization IV map from this.

[–]Justice502 4 points5 points ago

Shouldn't the Mariana trench be the highest peak?

[–]JimmyTheFace 4 points5 points ago

Point of order: the bottom of the map should be shown as water, as Antarctica is a land mass.

[–]farewelltokings2 4 points5 points ago

This is awesome.

[–]rockymountainoysters 5 points6 points ago

On the plus side, Atlantis real estate prices are finally ticking up.

[–]snifty 2 points3 points ago

Really brain-bending.

I have a question: suppose this were done to a map of some other Earth-like planet, with which the viewer had no familiarity.

Would it actually be possible, somehow, to determine from the pattern of water and land that the map was reversed artificially?

[–]Gish21 5 points6 points ago

If the map was detailed enough I think the lack of rivers would be a give away. There is no drainage from the mountains to the oceans. The long curvy strips of land in the oceans that are reversed rivers would be indicators as well.

[–]snifty 2 points3 points ago

I suppose the snow is also a clue: that there would be an ‘inverse Greenland’ surrounded by snow seems unlikely.

[–]Invol2ver 2 points3 points ago

I imagine this is what a map for some species of ocean-dwelling sentient fish would look like.

[–]nubetube 2 points3 points ago

This would be really cool to convert into a Civilization map :D

[–]29palms 2 points3 points ago

I really want to live on The Great Islands (where the Great Lakes were)

[–]freudian_nipple_slip 2 points3 points ago

Nice try Buster

[–]Skat402 1 point2 points ago

This doesn't nearly have enough upvotes.

[–]83overzero 1 point2 points ago

Tip: If your brain’s having a hard time processing this image try viewing it upside down.

[–]yochilloutbro 1 point2 points ago

The Red Peninsula looks like it would be a tropic paradise.

[–]riomhaire 1 point2 points ago

I flipped this upside down (to make it harder to recognise what it is, plus I think it looks nicer) and made it my Facebook cover thingy. Thank you!

[–]rhinorocan 0 points1 point ago

This is cool. It made feel stange to lookj at the Earth this way.

[–]Jurryaany 1 point2 points ago

Hello new wallpaper!

[–]OKAH 1 point2 points ago

You could walk around the earth!

[–]Flootershai 0 points1 point ago

I'd love to see this made super hi res and rivers (at least major ones) made into land bridges!

[–]Silence258 0 points1 point ago

I've been looking at this for the post 10 minutes trying to figure out how trade routes over water might be able to work like this. It would still work in some parts of the world but I think we would rely more on trade over land.

[–]LikeAgaveF 0 points1 point ago

I'm trippin' out, man!

[–]thenerdyglassesgirl 0 points1 point ago

I'm a loser. It took me a second to figure out what you meant by "inverted."

[–]zephyy 0 points1 point ago

My brain cannot process this very well. I just keep staring at the water continents.

[–]ketralnis 0 points1 point ago

I really want to see how cool those land formations would be but I can't untrain my eyes to immediately pick out the familiar continent shapes that it wants to recognise.

This would would be much easier to travel by land in, so modern society would look very very different

[–]XanderXombie 1 point2 points ago

My own point-out: where's the bits of Antarctica lakes?

Not to detract from this, mind you. It is what top scientists call "sweet".

[–]Magnora 1 point2 points ago

If it were like this, what is now the Caspian sea would be an amazing island to take, like great britian or so. Also we'd have to build the panama bridge instead of the panama canal.

[–]RiceMunk 0 points1 point ago

It took me far longer to find Europe on that map than I am comfortable admitting.

[–]Voyager_Nomadique 0 points1 point ago

The Great Plains of Pacifica...

[–]Voyager_Nomadique 1 point2 points ago

The Mysterious Island of Baikal...

[–]Dietmeister 0 points1 point ago

I know the shapes too good; it's really hard for me to think of the oceans as land :P

[–]riomhaire 0 points1 point ago

Try turning it upside down.

[–]NightHawk929 1 point2 points ago

Indonesia seems like a much more appealing place to live. It would be interesting how history would be different with humans always knowing that the world was round and there never being a conquest of the Aztecs.

[–]obrysii 1 point2 points ago

Humans have mostly always known the world was round.

[–]JoshIsNumber3 1 point2 points ago

Flat earth society must have downvoted.

[–]drtchock 1 point2 points ago

that wrinkled my brain.

[–]viagravagina 1 point2 points ago

Largest mass drowning ever.

[–]majeric 0 points1 point ago

Woah. Mountain ranges have become trenches and Trenches are now mountain ranges. Nice.

[–]magister0 1 point2 points ago

Apparently that's not true, read OP's comments

[–]rcrracer 0 points1 point ago

Bizarro World

[–]thetroublebaker 0 points1 point ago

Hey OP? How can I get this as a poster?

[–]PinkSlimeIsPeople 0 points1 point ago

This is awesome! I'd live on Superior Island.

[–]ion-tom 0 points1 point ago

Where did you source the terrain from? I'm working on a similar project right now and have been using NASA blue marble pics.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

congrats, your map reached the top of all time here on mapporn

[–]mygrapefruit[S] 0 points1 point ago

Awesomeeeee! :D

[–]elldrick 0 points1 point ago

The Hudson's Bay mountain would be an awesome thing to explore.

[–]Cessnateur 0 points1 point ago

I'd pay good money for a desktop relief globe version of this, showing the inverted mountain/trench elevation.

[–]nelg 0 points1 point ago

Impressive work, I've tried to do this on my own for some time.
..well, most of time have gone to frustration at not having a nice GIS software where I can just change a few parameters and spit the image out.

I thought that taking images of topography and bathymetry, inverting them, masking away the land with a separate vector and applying a gradient would suffice, but shading makes that impossible. Heights still look like heights.

There are some sub-folders there with all the related stuff I used, they're free to download and use if you wish (the slippy map is OSM's, and the reliefs are NOAA's public works).

[–]nerga -1 points0 points ago

Mercator projection? ewww.

[–]IslandGreetings 10 points11 points ago

Relevant xkcd

[–]Skat402 20 points21 points ago

Look out. We got a map hipster here.

[–]nerga 10 points11 points ago

We are on /r/mapporn aren't we?

[–]mygrapefruit[S] 7 points8 points ago

Had to pick one :P Next time it'll be a flash sphere which people can navigate by themselves with

[–]ryan324 -1 points0 points ago

That took a while for me at a [3]

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