A Map of Every Lighthouse on the Planet

(mapped.earth)

49 points | by karakoram 2 days ago

18 comments

  • rizonio 16 minutes ago
    This seems like it maps way more than just lighthouses. Looking at puget sound, at least, it seems to mark all the navigation buoys as lighthouses as well.
  • Waterluvian 1 hour ago
    I like the idea. But it was a bit jarring that panning with my finger took ages and then pinching to zoom insta-faceplanted me into the Labrador interior.

    If anyone wants to mount a rescue, I’m somewhere near a lighthouse.

    • bouchard 1 hour ago
      Even on desktop panning is remarkably slow.
  • themanmaran 31 minutes ago
    Fun fact, there is a .gov effort to sell (or give away) a lot of old lighthouses in exchange for agreed maintenance. It's sort of a terrible deal, since you can't live in them or use them for commercial purposes, but you do still have to maintain it to a certain standard. But I'm sure someone is out there with the desire.

    https://realestatesales.gov/our-listing/

    • pants2 16 minutes ago
      What would be the reason to buy it then? Just to tell your friends that you own a lighthouse?
  • SkyeCA 1 hour ago
    Pinch to zoom on a macbook makes the entire map sweep across the globe. Makes it very hard to use even if it's a neat idea.
    • pixelesque 1 hour ago
      Happens on desktop with Firefox as well.

      Looks like a bug with the view origin point being mis-matched with what the view's actually focused on - maybe high-DPI scale mis-match?

    • sixothree 27 minutes ago
      Sounding like desktop/laptop with a mouse is the only way to interact with this site. It's a great first try though. I spent a few minutes poking around for sure.
  • alienbaby 1 hour ago
    What an incredibly annoying zoom/spin thing is going on there
  • frisco 1 hour ago
    Fun fact: lighthouses in a general area will all have different periods so sailors can easily tell them apart and know which one they are looking at
    • pixelesque 1 hour ago
      They also have different fog horn timings as well.
    • ricksunny 1 hour ago
      sounds like pulsars.
  • willmeyers 1 hour ago
    It's cool data and I wish the person who prompted Claude to build this would have at least made an attempt to make it optimized and readable. Like, what does "Fl • every 5 s" mean? It's frustrating because this could have been amazing!
  • dochne 1 hour ago
    My favourite bit about people who use OpenStreetMap data for lighthouses is that they end up including <https://www.google.com/maps/@52.2647013,-2.1151705,51a,15y,2...> lighthouse in the exceptionally landlocked Droitwich (shows up as Hanbury Wharf Lighthouse)
    • pixelesque 1 hour ago
      They also often include "pairs" of lighthouses (high / low, front / rear) where newer ones have replaced older ones, but the older structure is still there (and often is now a museum), but isn't the active lighthouse.

      Although this one has done a reasonable job at culling most of those out, at least on the south coast of England.

  • somebodyistryin 59 minutes ago
    I checked the area near my house and there are about 10x more lighthouses shown than really exist. Some are buoys but most don’t correspond to anything.
    • DeliCheese 32 minutes ago
      There is one next to me that is not shown, so more of a coastline viewer than a lighthouse one.
  • indrex 1 hour ago
    Looks cool but on iPhone can’t zoom with touchscreen, and can’t tap either to select a lighthouse.
  • tbergkvist 1 hour ago
    My M4 macbook pro ramped up it's fans to 100% after being on this site for three minutes
  • nonethewiser 51 minutes ago
    The US state with the most lighthouses isnt on the coast.

    I’m talking about the true lighthouse count. I understand there are some issues with this map.

    • nephihaha 44 minutes ago
      Do you mean sea coast? Quite a few larger lakes and rivers have them.
  • zeusdclxvi 1 hour ago
    Didnt know there were lighthouses on the French Antarctic Kerguelen Islands
    • nephihaha 40 minutes ago
      They are not in a busy part of the ocean, but I suppose it is to warn people away. That archipelago is not fully charted, so it is probably a good idea to keep away from much of its coast. Probably dozens of uncharted reefs.
  • aeroscissorz1 1 hour ago
    Never knew about lighthouses on land
    • nephihaha 39 minutes ago
      They're on rivers, inland seas and large lakes. Russia has a lot because it is heavily reliant on waterways.
  • nephihaha 43 minutes ago
    It jumped around when I tried to use it on a mobile phone. I was surprised how few Greenland has.

    I'm fairly sure that there are more in outlying islands of New Zealand. The Chatham Islands seem well marked but there are none marked on Stewart Island or the Snares.

    • pixelesque 0 minutes ago
      > but there are none marked on Stewart Island or the Snares.

      The only two lights (they're not 'houses') on Stewart Island are actually on this map.

      The Snares don't have any.

  • mcfedr 48 minutes ago
    beautiful map
  • liberian 1 hour ago
    [dead]