Borderlines

Description

Every empire had its edges. Can you find them?

You get a year and a realm: the Roman Empire in 1 BC, say, or Australia in 1914. The map has no modern borders, only coastlines and rivers. Paint the land the realm ruled, press Submit, and see how close you came: what you got right, where you spilled over, and what you missed.

How it works

• Drag to paint. For big realms, draw the outline and use Fill.
• Stuck? Hints show the region or the capital, for a few points.
• Every day brings five new realms, from easy to hard. Share your score as a little row of squares.
• Practice mode gives you random realms whenever you like.

Each realm ends with a short note on what was really going on that year.

Part of Homo Ludens

Borderlines is No. 1 in Homo Ludens, a small collection of history games you can finish over a coffee. The other games are on the site.

Credits

Historical borders from historical-basemaps (André Ourednik and contributors). Base map from Natural Earth. Borders are approximate; history is messy. Spotted a mistake? Leave a comment.

Your progress is saved in your browser. It is separate from your progress on the Homo Ludens site.