Watch history move

Animated maps of wars, empires and shifting borders, of species and ideas spreading across the world, even of fantasy realms. Watch them, or make your own in a minute.

Make your own: pick a region and two years

Moving Polygons shopComing soon

Your favourite map, on the wall

Posters, mugs, shirts, a laser-cut wooden map and a jigsaw puzzle, printed with the maps on this site. Tell us what you'd buy and we'll let you know when it's ready.

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A framed Moving Polygons poster above a sofaA mug printed with the map of the wolf's return to EuropeA laser-cut wooden wall map of the kingdoms of England

Interactive Maps

Draw polygons directly on the map with intuitive click-and-drag tools. Edit nodes, split edges, and reshape territories with ease.

Timeline Animation

Add timestamps to your polygons and watch them morph smoothly between states. Control playback speed and loop animations.

Share & Embed

Publish your maps to share with the world. Each map gets a unique URL that's perfect for sharing on social media or embedding in websites.

Built for Every Industry

From policy analysis to urban planning, animated maps help teams communicate geographic change with clarity and impact.

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Join thousands of creators visualizing change over time.

Latest from the Blog

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Mills Against the Water: Six Centuries of Windmills, Pumping Stations and Floods in the Netherlands

An animated map of how the Netherlands was pumped dry, from the first recorded polder windmill in 1408 through the windmill drainages of the Golden Age, the steam pumps of the Haarlemmermeer and the great die-off of the mills in the 1920s to the new pumps in the Afsluitdijk in 2026, with the floods that came anyway.

How Long Europeans Live: Life Expectancy by Country, Region and Municipality, 1945–2024

An animated map of life expectancy at birth across Europe from 1945 to 2024, one frame per year, for countries first, then for regions and provinces as soon as official regional figures exist, and for municipalities and districts in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Czechia and the Nordic countries. It shows the gap of 27 years between Norway and Albania in 1950, the long stall of the Soviet bloc while southern Europe caught up, Russia's collapse in the 1990s, the COVID-19 years from Bergamo to Bulgaria and the earthquakes of 2023 in Türkiye, and it explains where each figure comes from and how the sources differ.

Who Came First Where: Dutch Elections by Municipality, 1937–2025

An animated map of the party that came first in each Dutch municipality (gemeente) at 26 elections to the Tweede Kamer, from 1937 to 2025, drawn on the municipal borders of each election year. It shows the pillarised map of Catholic, Protestant and socialist strongholds, the long reign of the CDA in the villages while the PvdA won the cities, the Communist village of Finsterwolde, the SGP's Bible Belt, and the swings of the 21st century from the LPF to the VVD, the PVV and D66.