Photo and Map Collections for World Geography
(Note: When you search for a photo in the search engine at the top of the page, the options appear at the bottom of this page. Suggestion: try search for ”qanat.”)
We are building a collection of annotated photos and Esri “story maps.” In 2016, we are again soliciting annotated slide shows and story maps, especially those that can be related to specific SOLs. Authors will receive a small stipend upon acceptance of their work. See guidelines below.
World Regional Maps
Excellent sets of maps by Georgeanne Hribar have been developed using ArcGIS. Maps for World Geography, Human Geography Geoinquiries, and World History can be accessed at http://vga.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html
The following maps were prepared for classroom use by Dr. Andrew Foy, Department of Geoscience, Radford University. Below is are first drafts of color maps of several world regions. They all appear as pdfs. Regional composition is in agreement with Virginia World Geography 2008 SOLs.
Australia and the Pacific Islands
Caribbean Islands
East Asia
Mexico and Central America
South America
South Asia
Southeast Asia
Note: Other world regional maps can found on the World History I pages.
Story maps
These are best viewed in the most recent version of your browser. To eliminate caption from the image, click the down arrow. to save photo for use in PowerPoints, right click and select “save image as.” A full resolution jpeg will download.
Currently available:
Taiwan by Don Zeigler, Old Dominion University.
South Africa by Penny Anderson, Spotsylvania County Schools.
Coming:
Germany, by Barbara Crain, Northern Virginia Community College.
Slide Collections
Slide collections for world regional geography now exist for Belarus, East Sea/Sea of Japan name controversy, Ecuador, Israel, Morocco, Moscow and Saint Petersburg (Russia), and Peru. Each appears as a separate “album,” available in the box below. You may view them as a slideshow or as a set of thumbnails, which can be enlarged by clicking on the photo. When descriptions are present, they can be seen in the slideshow version.
A separate collection, Aerial Views of Earth, contains photos from several parts of the world, including Virginia.
SeaOfGalilee_LakeKineret.jpg
The Sea of Galilee Lake Kinneret) lies in the Jordan Rift Valley in northeast Israel between the Golan Heights and the Galilee. Its surface fluctuates between 686 and 705 ft below surface level, making it the lowest freshwater lake on Earth and the second lowest lake overall, after the saline Dead Sea. In modern history, the first cooperative farming village (kibbutz) was founded on its shores by Jewish settlers in 1909. Kvutzat Kinneret trained Jewish immigrants in agriculture and is considered the cradle of kibbutz culture in early Zionism.
Nazareth_sm.jpg
Nazareth is the largest city in north Israel and is known as the Arab capital of Israel. Over two-thirds of it population consists of Arab citizens of Israel. Most of the remaining people are Christian. Mount Hermon rises int eh background.
32° 42? 7? N, 35° 18? 12? E
NazarethDowntownMarket_sm.jpg
Market in downtown Nazareth
NazarethChurchOfAnnunciation1.jpg
Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazaerth. Today’s Basilica is a Roman Catholic Church sitting on the site of an earlier Byzantine Church. According to Catholic tradition, the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus at this place. (Greek Orthodox traditions place the event at a spring in Nazareth and have built the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation there.)
NazarethChurchOfAnnunciation2.jpg
The Grotto of the Annunciation in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth is believed by many to be the girlhood home of Mary.
NazarethBaptistChurch_sm.jpg
Baptist Church in Nazareth
GolanHeightsSyrianTank_sm.jpg
The Golan Heights was captured from Syria and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. It was annexed de facto by Israel in 1981, although it remains internationally recognized as Syrian territory. Some 40-plus Israeli settlements and other sites can be found in this geopolitical region today. A Syrian tank rusts in the foreground
JordanRiver 2.jpg
The Jordan River flows 156 miles from Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights into the Dead Sea. It forms the border between Israel and Palestine (West Bank) on the west wide and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on the east side.
JordanRiver1.jpg
Baptisms in Jordan River
BetShe'anNationalPark1_sm.jpg
The ancient city of Bet She’an was strategically located at the junction of the Jordan River Valley and the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. It thereby controlled access to the coast by interior settlements and controlled the route between Jerusalem and the Galilee. Its ruins are now protected in Bet She’an National Park. 32° 30? 0? N, 35° 30? 0? E
BetShe'anNationalPark2.jpg
Bet She'an ruins in Bet She'an National Park
BetShe'anNationalPark3.jpg
Bet She'an amphitheter.
Dead Sea Hotel_a.jpg
The Daniel Dead Sea Hotel is one of several star luxury hotels on the Israeli shore of the Dead Sea, the lowest point on all of Earth’s landmasses (1,407 ft below sea level).
Dead Sea Hotel_b.jpg
Royal Dead Sea by Rimonim is another modern luxury hotel on the banks of the Dead Sea.
JerusalemDowntown2.jpg
Jerusalem's downtown area.
JerusalemDowntown1.jpg
Jerusalem's downtown area.
JerusalemWailingWall1.jpg
The “Wailing Wall” or Western Wall is a small section of wall surrounding Temple Mount and dates to the Second Temple. It faces a plaza in the Jewish Sector of Old Jerusalem. It is a sacred site for Jewish prayer and pilgrimage.
JerusalemWailingWall2.jpg
Women pray at the Western Wall in a separate area for females.
JerusalemWailingWall3.jpg
On the plaza in front of the Western Wall.
Jerusalem_Dome of the Rock.jpg
The Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, completed in 691 CE during the rule of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik, represents one of the oldest examples of Islamic architecture. It is significant in the religious traditions of Jews, Christians, and Moslems.
JerusalemChurchOfHolySepulchre_interior.jpg
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem is believed by many Christians to be on the site of Calvary (Golgotha), where Jesus was crucified. It is also thought to be the location of Jesus’s burial and resurrection. (Some regard the Garden Tomb in another part of Jerusalem to be the site of these events.) Today the church is the headquarters of the Grrek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. The building is shared and maintained by centuries-long agreements among several Christian churches, including Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Roman Catholic.
EasternJerusalemWithFragmentOfSeparationWall_sm.jpg
Israeli West Bank barrier as seen from East Jerusalem. The separation wall follows, more or less, the 1949 Armistice Line or "Green Line," but in places penetrates eastward into the Palestinian West Bank. It is a major hindrance to Palestinians needing to travel back and forth across the line to work or return home.
Beach in Ashqelon_sm.jpg
The beach at Ashkelon. The old seaport of Ashkelon at the southern limits of Israel’s Mediterranean coasts dates back to the Neolithic period. It lies 31 miles south of Tel Aviv and 8 miles north of the Gaza Strip. In 1920 it became part of mandatory Palestine and during the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 marked the forward position of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. In November of that year, it was occupied by Israeli forces and today is firmly part of Israel. The port is the northern terminus of the Trans-Israel pipeline.
31° 40? 0? N, 34° 34? 0? E
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Future Slide Collections: Guidelines
We are looking for annotated photos to become part of online collections of slides useful to teachers of world geography. Photos dealing with Virginia or relevant to AP Human Geography are also welcome.
If you wish to submit photos, at a minimum please identify the location of the set of photos and write a caption for each photo. Accompanying information on geographic significance is always welcome. It may prove helpful in the future if you also categorize your photos as to physical geography, cultural geography, economic geography, political geography, and so forth, and provide keywords. Keep in mind the teacher/user and think about the type of information you would want if you were to use someone else’s photos. Slideshows will likely be organized according to world region and, if possible, SOL.
Remember that accompanying maps can also be useful!
Maximum size of the largest dimension (length or width depending upon orientation) is 1024 pixels. We can make necessary adjustments if you do not have the means to do so yourself. Photos should be of sufficient resolution to be used on the web (72 dpi) and/or in PowerPoints. Recommended PowerPoint size is 768 x 512 pixels. The site cannot not accommodate files greater than 12 mb.
Plan to send individual jpegs of photos, numbered in sequence. Captions keyed to the photos should be placed in a WORD document so that they may be copied and pasted into a photo album. It would be most helpful if the photo caption also indicates the relevant SOL. (See the South Africa slideshow above as an example of best practices.)
Please send questions or submissions to Penny Anderson at panderso@hs.scs.k12.va.us.
