The Most Comprehensive Digital Map of the Ancient World

From Ireland to India—With Just One Click

Who wouldn’t want to embark on a virtual voyage to the lands once explored by ancient geographers? To not only discover the cities and their stories, but also to visualize the landscape of each region just as it was in antiquity?

This is exactly what PERIPLUS, a freely accessible digital historical geography platform, offers. Launched in May 2024 by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), PERIPLUS aims to be the most complete digital map of the known ancient world—stretching from Ireland to India and spanning from the historical period to Late Antiquity.

But it’s more than just a map. Users can explore ancient settlements, mountains, rivers, lakes, islands, and regions as they were known in antiquity (for example, Lake Copais is shown as a lake, as it was in ancient times). By clicking on each place, users can access historical data and additional resources through embedded links. A specialized software tool also allows users to extract and identify geographical and other terms from texts—regardless of their date or language.

One of PERIPLUS’s most ambitious goals is to gradually index and translate all works of ancient Greek literature, both in their original language and in translation. In doing so, it aims to become an invaluable, user-friendly resource for researchers, students, educators, and anyone with an interest in antiquity. The platform is bilingual (Greek-English), making it widely accessible to an international audience.

“This project is a collective effort. Around 140 undergraduate and postgraduate students have contributed so far,” explains Professor Konstantinos Kopanias of NKUA, the program’s creator and coordinator. “We deliberately developed it on a volunteer basis and with a zero budget. As a public university, we wanted to offer a free service with open data accessible to all—which we consider vital. This also ensures the project’s continuity, since it doesn’t rely on short-term funding programs.”

PERIPLUS is part of ArchaeoCosmos, a collaborative platform hosted by NKUA’s Department of History and Archaeology. ArchaeoCosmos focuses on the historical geography of the Mediterranean and the Near East from Prehistory through Late Antiquity and is supported by the university’s Digital Humanities Research Center, directed by Professor Dimitrios Plantzos.

“It all started during the pandemic,” recalls Professor Kopanias. “Since fieldwork and excavations were suspended, I began collecting data on the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East for use in my publications and lectures. Once I had mapped those areas, I realized much of the world was still blank. It felt like leaving a puzzle half-finished—so I kept going.”

The result is a fully developed map covering everything from Ireland to India and from Scandinavia to Africa, reflecting how the ancient world was perceived. “The geographic knowledge of the ancients is truly remarkable,” he adds.

PERIPLUS stands out as a unique resource in its field. While another major project, Pleiades (https://pleiades.stoa.org/), is also highly valuable, PERIPLUS addresses key limitations:

1. Pleiades only shows individual ancient sites without surrounding context—no neighboring towns, rivers, or mountains.

2. It lists names in Latinized form only, which can obscure their original spelling and pronunciation.

PERIPLUS, by contrast, includes many names in ancient polytonic Greek, while also offering Latinized and modern versions. Importantly, it records all known name variants for each place—helping users identify locations mentioned under different names in ancient texts.

A central ambition of PERIPLUS is to gradually annotate and translate around 1,200 ancient Greek texts into English and Modern Greek—openly and freely accessible. The first such work is the “Periplus of the Erythraean Sea”, a 1st-century CE geographical treatise translated into Modern Greek by Professor Plantzos.

“It’s a relatively obscure and difficult text, rich in geographic references that are hard to follow without a map. Yet it offers a wealth of information,” says Professor Kopanias.

This text is included in the first full version of PERIPLUS, covering the known world from the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE to the 5th century CE. The next steps involve expanding into prehistoric periods by including relevant sites—highlighting patterns of habitation—and incorporating archaeological monuments.

Next in line for integration are the “Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax” and Strabo’s “Geographica”—a brilliant but notoriously complex work. “Our aim is to make these texts more accessible to the public, especially when paired with an interactive map. As we annotate each text, we also enrich the map,” explains Kopanias. Later additions will include works by well-known authors like Herodotus, Homer, Thucydides, and Xenophon—bridging literature, history, and geography for students, educators, and antiquity enthusiasts.

“Ultimately, we want to create a digital tool that connects ancient texts with archaeological sites—some of which are little-known. That’s our real goal: not just to present texts, but to help users discover the physical remains of the past,” he concludes.

PERIPLUS is divided into three main components:

1. Periplus Atlas
   The most comprehensive digital map (https://periplus.arch.uoa.gr/map_gr.html) of the ancient world to date, covering the period from historical times to Late Antiquity and the geographical expanse from Ireland to India. Users can explore ancient cities, mountains, rivers, islands, lakes, and regions. Each site includes detailed information, alternative ancient names in Greek and Latin, chronological data, and links to related resources like Wikipedia. The map also features a powerful search tool for exploring specific regions.

2. Periplus Logos
   This module includes texts from ancient Greek literature, with geographic terms gradually annotated. Every geographic term is a clickable hyperlink that directs the user to the corresponding location on the digital map.

3. Periplus App
   A Python and JavaScript-based tool (coming soon) that allows users to extract geographic (and other) terms from any text, in any language and from any period. It automatically creates web pages for these terms, enabling users to publish annotated texts online.

PERIPLUS is an open-access repository.
Users are free to use the Periplus App to annotate their own texts and generate custom digital maps (Web Maps) that can be embedded in educational, research, or even recreational websites—completely free of charge.