REDLANDS, CALIF. -- Today marks the launch of Maps.com, a groundbreaking platform dedicated to showcasing and celebrating the world’s most beautiful and remarkable maps. The innovative website is set to redefine the way people perceive the power of cartography and data visualization.

Created by Esri, the global leader in mapping and location intelligence software, the new website is a platform for sharing and discussing visually engaging maps that inspire, challenge, educate, reward, and provoke across a range of topics and formats. The site will serve as a celebration of science and art, presenting maps that captivate not only with their insights but also with their aesthetics.

Maps.com is focused on spotlighting distinctive, powerful maps and those who make them. As a creator-focused platform, Maps.com encourages individuals as well as organizations to submit their maps to be featured on the site. Submissions that are visually engaging, dramatic, and bold but understandable, with both style and substance, have already been highlighted on the site during soft launch.

Featuring analysis and dynamic visualizations, videos, and 3D models, Maps.com explores topics such as climate change, the digital divide, and even the exploration of Mars. Intended as a way to bring the power of mapping to a wider audience, the website is approachable to non-professionals curious about cartography. But it is also valuable for academics and professionals seeking to access new and useful data resources or insightful real-world narratives.

“Maps can help us tell stories about what’s happening on our planet, experience new ideas, and guide us where we want to go,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri president. “With Maps.com, we are proud to partner with some of the most innovative map makers to celebrate how they can show us the future we’re facing, bad or good, and which can help us to build a better world.”

Maps.com is now live and accessible to anyone. Join us there to explore the latest and most fascinating maps-and if you have a great map that the Maps.com editorial team should know about, submit it for consideration at maps.com/submit-map/.