In Denmark, You Can Walk Across the World on a Giant Grass Map

At the Verdenskortet, you can skip across Africa, pop over to Europe, stroll through Asia, paddle across the Pacific Ocean, and then admire North America’s Great Lakes in the course of an afternoon. The park, on the edge of Lake Klejtrup in Denmark, is a scale map of the world created out of grass and stones. (The name means “world map” in Danish.)

The terrestrial map, advertised as the world’s largest atlas, is the brainchild of Søren Poulsen (a farmer who grew up on the park property, not the contemporary Danish politician). Poulsen was inspired when he found a stone in the shape of the Danish peninsula of Jutland. He began building it in 1944, shaping the stoney penninsula into a tiny piece of an Earth-bound atlas on the southern shore of Lake Klejtrup. He used basic tools and a wheelbarrow to mold his model of the world, continuing to perfect it until his death in 1969.

A look at Asia from southern Africa:

The Great Lakes of North America:

The map stretches across around 4400 square feet, and it’s to scale: one degree of latitude corresponds to 27 centimeters (10.6 inches). In addition to the rowboat station in the mock Pacific Ocean, it also features mini golf and a cafe. 

[h/t: Atlas Obscura]

All images by Frank Vincentz via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0