Map
Map Legend
Marker Types
Five marker types are used on the map:
Pin with a tent icon— places where the expedition stayed up to five days (overnight stops).
Pin with a right-arrow icon — places mentioned in the diaries that the expedition passed without an overnight stop.
Red pin with a house icon – places where the expedition stayed more than five days.
Orange pin – mountain passes.
Burgundy pin with a star icon – Points of Interest mentioned in the diaries of Nicholas and George Roerich.
Route Line Styles
Solid purple — expedition route.
Red dashed — tentative expedition route. Used where route information is very limited (e.g., Bombay — Calcutta; Darjeeling — Tashiding — Yuksom). For a fuller list, see About the Project.
Geotagged Photos
Some photos are geotagged—both contemporary shots and expedition images where we could identify an approximate shooting location.
These photos become visible only after you reach a certain zoom level.
Nearby photos are grouped; the count shown in the top-right indicates how many images are in the group. Click a group to open a gallery and browse all photos in it.
Map Tools
Navigation
To zoom in or out, left-click the +/– buttons, or hold Ctrl and scroll the mouse wheel.
To zoom in on a specific area, you have two options:
Double-click the desired spot on the map.
Hold Shift and drag to draw a box around the area to enlarge.
Layers
Use this menu to switch between layers (topographic, satellite, etc.). The “Topo 10km” layer has partial coverage only.
Tip: satellite imagery often shows trails and unpaved roads that topo maps miss.
External Maps
Use this control to open the current map extent (visible area) in third-party map services:
Google Map, Bing Road, AppleMaps — interactive basemaps (Apple Maps is available only on iOS and macOS).
Google Earth — opens the 3D globe, useful for detailed terrain study when analyzing the expedition route.
GeoHack — a hub linking to many additional map sources not integrated into our site.
Nakarte — link to nakarte.me.
Eto Mesto — a large collection of historical maps helpful for route analysis.
Mongolia Map, Asia Map — links to historical maps hosted on retromap.ru
OldMaps Online — an English-language catalog at oldmapsonline.org with extensive historical maps.
PastVu — a link to a website where users upload photos geotagged to the chosen map location.
Full-Screen Mode
When activated, the top menu (bottom menu on mobile) and part of the toolbar icons are hidden to maximize the map workspace. Press Esc (or tap the button again) to exit full-screen mode.
Ruler
Click the Ruler button, then left-click on the map to plot a path point by point. When you’re finished, click the Ruler button again. Distance is calculated with Earth’s curvature taken into account.
Locate Me
Click the button to center the map on your current location — useful for researchers working in the field.
Search
Click the Search button on the toolbar and enter a query. The tool performs a substring search and tolerates one typo. It looks up names mentioned in Nicholas and George Roerich’s diaries as well as modern English names (shown in parentheses in the results).
Settings
This button opens the settings panel (see the dedicated “Settings” chapter for full details).
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