With the improvements to Google Maps still coming fast and furious (latest: ‘terrain’ layer with beautiful cartography and a ‘use mass transit’ option), it won’t be long before we can map languages and religions and jokes to this cool view from Strangemaps:

although it is a shame that we don’t have a similar view for the rest of the world.

One thing to note, however, is that the eastern reach of this 20-40% light hair band, which may well encompass Afghanistan, does not include Alexander’s Macedonia or any of modern-day Greece, suggesting that either the blondes were subsumed into later darker-haired populations or that the light-haired Afghans aren’t at all related to their putative Selucid ancestors. Herodotus, help!

But are Gallegos blonder than other Spaniards? And what is with the boot of Italy? Is that a Norman remnant? Is that possible?

Note also the relative dark-hair’dness of the Irish and the highland Scots.

I can’t wait to be able to overlay, say, a map of Catholic-ness over this one.