I love maps. I use to orienteer, still help to collect data for cave maps, love eyeballing maps with political boundaries shown, am fascinated by the way terrain impacts battles (Agincourt was all about the terrain, sorry Anglophiles) and so on. Ran into this map today and figure it's worth starting a topic over:
1000 years of political boundaries in 5 minutes:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrZvn1qckIs&feature=player_embedded#![/youtube]