The World's Most Notable Places.

Do you remember the World's Most Notable People Map. On Monday, I decided I'd build a World's Most Notable Places Map, showing locations based on their Wikipedia QRank. I abandoned the project today after discovering the Wikipedia Importance Map.

Earlier this month, Wikimedia Enterprise released the Geospatial Wikidata Databset.. This is a large, open dataset that connects geographic features in OpenStreetMap (OSM) with information held in Wikidata, Wikipedia and Wikivoyage.

The idea behind the dataset is simple but powerful: OpenStreetMap tells you where things are and provides their geographic shapes, while Wikimedia projects can tell you what they are, why they matter and what is known about them. The dataset does the hard work of linking these sources together, making it easier to query this information without building your own complicated data-processing pipeline.

My bright idea was to use the Geospatial Wikidata Dataset to create A Map of the World's Most Notable Places, using Wikidata's QRank. QRank is a ranking signal for Wikidata entities, which correspond to subjects represented in Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. It measures their relative popularity across the whole Wikimedia ecosystem.

Which brings us to the Wikipedia Importance Map. The Wikipedia Importance Map maps geolocated Wikipedia articles around the world, with the size of each label reflecting the importance of the subject. The map combines two different measures of importance: PageRank, which analyses how Wikipedia articles link to one another across all language editions, and QRank, which uses pageviews to measure how popular articles are. The result is an interactive map that lets you explore the world through the subjects that attract the most attention on Wikipedia.

Even more interestingly, the map doesn't limit itself to articles with their own geographic coordinates. It also includes around 2.5 million subjects that can be associated with a place, such as people mapped to their birthplace, paintings to their museum, battles to where they were fought, and companies to their headquarters. These are displayed as colored dots, spread around the relevant town or city.

There is also a second map, the Wikivoyage Travel Map, which uses Wikivoyage data to map destinations and travel recommendations. It includes places to see, things to do, shopping, eating, drinking and sleeping, with their size determined by how often travellers read about them.

Exploring the places with the highest QRank in a particular area is an interesting way to discover its most prominent landmarks, people and historical events. It can help you identify places to visit, uncover local stories or simply find out what makes a particular town or city notable.

One caveat: a large label indicates importance according to the map's combined ranking signals, not necessarily historical significance or how worthwhile a place is to visit. It's a discovery tool, rather than a definitive guide to the world's most important places.