The Google Maps of the Week

I think this is the first entirely non-English map to feature in a Google Maps of the Week post.

Die Seidenstrasse is an interactive tour of the Silk Road using Google Maps satellite imagery, photos and audio. The tour was created by Swiss broadcasters SRF to accompany a televised documentary series that is currently airing on Friday nights in Switzerland.

The tour animates along the Silk Road from Venice to China and includes an audio commentary with accompanying music, photos and 360 degree panoramas of interesting locations along the route. The tour and interactive features are all in German.

Interactieve Kaarten, from the Planning Department of the City of Amsterdam, makes it to the best maps of the week not for one particular map but for their extensive GIS collection of maps of the city.

The maps cover a range of subjects that will be of interest to local citizens, including housing, green spaces, climate and building use. For example the Woningwaarde Map plots the cost of housing in the city. Using a heat map overlay this map shows the average cost of housing throughout the city.

Another interesting map is the Niet-Woonfuncties Map which shows the blueprint of all non-residential properties in the city. On the map each non-residential property is shaded to show whether the property is used for business, retail, leisure etc.