TLDR: is that humans have a "storied" history of using pictures to communicate. So much so that even space probes have been sent with diagrams of our solar system in lieu of text.

The site has nice interactivity with the map and the associated historic image from the some point in time.

For me the whole post was worth it just to find this little gem of a book tucked away at the end `Ost Trifft West` by Yang Liu [1]. It is a visual representation of cultural differences which I found both wonderfully light hearted and highly informative.

[1]: ISBN-13: 978-3874397339