Cities on the Map

Every video

One city. One question. Three layers.

It starts on one real place, with what everyone assumes about the city and the number that breaks it. Then the answer, in the same order every time.

The land

A tour of the site by the compass: the river, the hills, the coast, the old lake. For each zone, one verdict: could a city grow here?

The people

Who came first, what they needed, and the one decision, law, wall or flood that froze the map, with its date and who made it.

Why it's still like this

Today's technology could change it, so why hasn't it? The money, the distances, the strongest counter-argument, and one what-if.

Real places by their real namesEvery number with its yearFair to every side of the storyMaps from open data

What you'll see

The map does the explaining

Every frame below is from the channel's own videos: real buildings, real coastlines, real boundaries, drawn the moment the narration names them.

3D map of Mexico City's centre, the Metropolitan Cathedral lit in yellow — **The dive into the city**Every video opens on the whole country and comes down into the streets, onto the place the first sentence names

Outline map of Mexico with Mexico City marked — **From the country down**Natural Earth outlines, then the city's real buildings

3D map of Berlin with an old wall line and an old customs boundary drawn on the streets — **History drawn on the streets**Old walls and shorelines laid over today's city, era by era

Satellite map of Paris with the city limits drawn in yellow and an era caption — **The map, one era at a time**Each wall greys to a ghost as the next one is drawn

Satellite map of the Valley of Mexico with the former Lake Texcoco and today's city limits — **The true boundary**What the city really covers, against what everyone thinks it is

Satellite map of the Valley of Mexico, the old lake in blue, a white circle on Mexico City: 22 million live here — **The count circle**One dot, one number: the figure the whole video turns on

Satellite map of central Mexico showing a what-if: the capital on firmer ground — **The what-if**The same map redrawn: the wall gone, the lake drained, the capital moved

3D view of the Zócalo in Mexico City with the square outlined in yellow — **Close on the place**The square, the bridge, the district the sentence is about

Data card: 4 to 5 years, streets under water after the 1629 flood — **Numbers with a yardstick**Every big figure next to one you already know

Thumbnail: a map of central Mexico, a red circle on the Valley of Mexico, 'WHY?' and '22 million people live here'

Episode 1

Why 22 Million People Live on a Drained Lake

Mexico City stands on the bed of Lake Texcoco, in a valley with no river out to the sea. In 1630, after a flood that lasted years, the order came to move the capital to dry ground, and the city refused. Four centuries of drains later, parts of it sink up to half a metre a year.

The five lakes of the Valley of Mexico, and the island that became Tenochtitlan
The 1629 flood and the order to leave that nobody obeyed
The old shoreline drawn over today's city
Why a city built in a lake is running out of water

The first cities

Ten questions, ten maps

Empty maps that should be full, rich cities with no reason to be rich, and the maps people search for before they move.

01Why 22 Million People Live on a Drained Lake (Mexico City)Out first

02How Did Dubai Become Rich? (It's Not Oil)A hidden paradox

03Why Almost Nobody Lives in Central Paris AnymoreAn empty map

04Cost of Living in Dubai, Mapped District by DistrictThe map, explained

05Germany Has a Megacity Hiding in Plain SightA hidden paradox

06Why Rome Is the Opposite of Every European CapitalA hidden paradox

07Moving to London? Every Borough Explained on One MapThe map, explained

08Why Japan's West Coast Has No Big CitiesAn empty map

09The Berlin Wall Is Still Visible From SpaceA hidden paradox

10Evolution of Singapore: From Swamp to Richest CityThe map, explained

Made to travel

Four languages, one map

Every video is made in English, then told again in German, French and Polish by a native narrator, with the same maps.

ENEnglishEvery city is an answer to its map.

DEDeutschJede Stadt ist eine Antwort auf ihre Karte.

FRFrançaisChaque ville est une réponse à sa carte.

PLPolskiKażde miasto to odpowiedź na swoją mapę.

Where it comes from

The sources behind every map

Open map data and official numbers, credited in every video and in its description.

Overture MapsOverture Maps FoundationThe real buildings of the 3D cities, with their heights

Natural EarthPublic domainCountries, regions and coastlines from space down to the city

Sentinel-2Cloudless mosaic by EOXThe satellite picture of the land under each city

National statisticsCensusesPopulation by city and district, always with its year

Research and archivesNamed on screenStudies, historic maps and records behind every claim