One Young India
Geography GeniusesCredits

Geography GeniusesCredits

Picture, video and data credits

Every picture, video and dataset in this course:who made it, where it comes from and the licence that lets us show it.Thank you to everyone who shares their work freely.

The course home

The Nile valley at night from space: a thin line of town lights through dark desert, opening into the bright delta.The Nile and its delta at night, seen from the International Space Station: a thin line of lights through the dark desert.Photo: NASA, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.

Part 1: Maps, power and perspective

The Earth from space, centred on the Indian Ocean, with Asia, Africa and Australia under swirls of white cloud.The Eastern Hemisphere in NASA's Blue Marble, a picture of the Earth put together from many satellite images.Image: NASA images by Reto Stöckli, based on data from NASA and NOAA, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
A straight stone-lined canal running between bright green paddy fields, with banana plants and coconut palms beyond.A canal between paddy fields at Thanneermukkom, in Kerala's Alappuzha district.Photo: Vis M, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India. The crop is shared under the same licence.
The Earth seen from above the North Pole, with the white island of Greenland just below the pole among the northern lands.Greenland, the white island just below the pole, as the globe shows it from above the North Pole, in a picture made from NASA satellite images.Image: NASA, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
Part of Mercator's 1569 world map, engraved in black and white: Greenland and the North Atlantic, with a seam between two sheets.Mercator's world map of 1569, around Greenland, which it draws far bigger than it is.Map: Gerardus Mercator, public domain (author died more than 70 years ago), via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India.
A large old telescope mounted between two stone piers in a narrow room, pointing up through a slot in the roof.The Airy transit circle at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, first used in 1851.Photo: "Airys Transit Circle" by Andres Rueda, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A boxy satellite wrapped in gold foil, standing in a clean room before it was sealed inside its rocket.A second-generation satellite for India's own navigation system, NavIC, before it was sealed inside its rocket.Photo: Indian Space Research Organisation, GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons.
A dark sign on a white picket fence reads "Greenwich Meridian Line passes this point", with trees behind.A sign at Sheffield Park, in England, marks where the Greenwich meridian passes: the line of zero longitude runs far beyond Greenwich itself.Photo: "Sheffield Park, Greenwich Meridian Line" by Helmut Zozmann, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Part of a detailed topographic map of Reisterstown, Maryland, with streets, streams, buildings and brown contour lines.Large scale: a 1953 US Geological Survey map of Reisterstown, Maryland, at 1 to 24,000.Map: USGS, public domain (US government work, USGS), via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India.
Part of a small-scale map around Baltimore, Maryland: towns are small names and patches, roads thin red and black lines.Small scale: a 1989 survey map of the country around it, at 1 to 250,000.Map: United States government, public domain (US government work), via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India.
An old black-and-white cartoon: a voting district drawn as a monster with wings, claws and a long neck, its towns written across its body.The cartoon of 1812 that gave the word its start: the oddly shaped Massachusetts senate district, drawn as a winged monster.Cartoon: Elkanah Tisdale, public domain (author died more than 70 years ago), via Wikimedia Commons.
The coast of Odisha from space: a long sandbar between the blue sea and the pale green water of Chilika lagoon.Chilika lagoon on the coast of Odisha, seen from the International Space Station.Photo: NASA, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India.
A black-and-white street map of part of London, with small black bars stacked along the streets, thickest around Broad Street.John Snow's map of the deaths around Broad Street.Map: John Snow, public domain (author died more than 70 years ago), via Wikimedia Commons.
A black iron water pump with a handle on a cobbled London street corner, an old brick pub behind it.A memorial pump in Broadwick Street, London, the street that was called Broad Street when John Snow traced the deaths there.Photo: "John Snow memorial and pub" by Justinc, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India. The crop is shared under the same licence.
An engraved plan and side views of two survey towers, one an open timber frame and one a solid masonry tower.Plans of the towers built for Colonel Everest's survey along the Great Arc.Drawing: C. Strahan, public domain (author died more than 70 years ago), via Wikimedia Commons.
The dark rock pyramid of Mount Everest above snowy ridges and glaciers, a plume of cloud blowing off its summit.Mount Everest, the peak the Survey numbered Peak XV and in 1856 announced as the highest in the world.Photo: © Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A dark blue sea seen from space between a snowy peninsula on the left and the islands of Japan at lower right.The sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, seen by a NASA satellite in 2024.Image: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
India and its neighbours at night, from space: bright city lights scattered over the land, the seas black. The year is printed on it.India and its neighbours at night in 2012 and in 2023, from NASA satellite records.Image: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
India and its neighbours at night, from space: bright city lights scattered over the land, the seas black. The year is printed on it.India and its neighbours at night in 2012 and in 2023, from NASA satellite records.Image: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
VideoNASA's Black Marble: Stories from the Night SkyFrom the channel NASA Goddard. Watch the full video.
Cooper Creek in the Australian outback from space, in false colour: thin blue channels across pale dry land.Cooper Creek in Queensland, Australia, seen by Landsat satellites on 5 and 29 March 2025, before and after heavy rain.Image: NASA Earth Observatory (Michala Garrison), using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
The same stretch of Cooper Creek from space in false colour, the land flooded bright blue between patches of cloud.Cooper Creek in Queensland, Australia, seen by Landsat satellites on 5 and 29 March 2025, before and after heavy rain.Image: NASA Earth Observatory (Michala Garrison), using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
The globe at night over Asia: city lights spread across India, China and Japan, the oceans dark.Asia at night, from NASA satellite records of 2016.Image: NASA Earth Observatory, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.

Part 2: Borders, rivers and resources

Muddy channels of the Ganga delta branching into the Bay of Bengal, with mangrove islands and pale plumes of silt.Where the Ganga and the Brahmaputra reach the sea: the Hooghly, Sagar Island and the Sundarbans, seen by the Landsat 8 satellite in February 2017.Image: "Hooghly- Brahmaputra Delta, Bay of Bengal (India - Bangladesh)" by O.V.E.R.V.I.E.W., CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Flat green paddy fields with sheets of standing water stretching to a line of trees under a cloudy sky.Paddy fields near Saharsa, Bihar, on the wide flat plain.Photo: Varunesh Chandra, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India. The crop is shared under the same licence.
A village of small houses scattered down a steep mountainside, with terraced fields and orchards cut into the slope.Brua village in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, its orchards cut into terraces on a steep slope.Photo: UnpetitproleX, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The curve of the Earth from orbit: snowy Himalayan peaks above a hazy plain, the brown Tibetan Plateau and its lakes beyond.The Himalaya rising from the plain, photographed from the International Space Station by the astronaut Don Pettit, with the Tibetan Plateau beyond.Photo: Donald Pettit, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
An old printed map of Africa, the claims of European empires outlined in coloured lines, with a key in the lower left corner.A map of Africa printed by Justus Perthes in Gotha in 1885, coloured to show the claims of European empires that year.Map: Justus Perthes, public domain (author died more than 70 years ago), via Wikimedia Commons.
A large red-brick palace with a tall clock tower and grey slate roofs, behind a wide lawn under a clear blue sky.The Peace Palace in The Hague, where the International Court of Justice sits and gave its 2002 ruling on the Bakassi peninsula.Photo: Velvet, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
An old document open on a stand, two columns of red wax seals joined by a cord, each beside a handwritten signature.Seals and signatures on the Belgian copy of the General Act of the Berlin Conference, 1885, on show in the House of European History in Brussels.Photo: Karmakolle, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
VideoThe Most Complex Borders in Europe: Why Do We Have Nations?From the channel Tom Scott. Watch the full video.
Grey smoke streaming east from the island of Sumatra across a dark blue strait towards the Malay Peninsula, seen from space.Smoke from fires on Sumatra drifting east across the Strait of Malacca towards Malaysia and Singapore, seen by a NASA satellite on 19 June 2013.Image: NASA Earth Observatory image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
Brick pavement crossed by a line of white crosses, a letter B on one side and the letters NL on the other.Baarle: white crosses in the pavement mark the line, with B for Belgium on one side and NL for the Netherlands on the other.Photo: FrDr, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India. The crop is shared under the same licence.
A tall steel gate frame on a barrage, with lifting cables, above an orange roadside railing.One of the gates of the Farakka Barrage across the Ganga in West Bengal, where the treaty shares the river's water in the dry months.Photo: Pinakpani, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India. The crop is shared under the same licence.
VideoHow Wells & Aquifers Actually WorkFrom the channel Practical Engineering. Watch the full video.
Elinor Ostrom, an older woman with grey hair and glasses, looking to one side.Elinor Ostrom, who in 2009 became the first woman to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.Photo: "Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom (Economics)" by US Embassy Sweden, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India.
A small engine and pipe beside a borewell at the edge of a ploughed field, trees on the flat horizon.A pump set drawing groundwater from a borewell to water the fields near Vrindavan, in Uttar Pradesh.Photo: Gannu03, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
DataPrice of Brent crude oil, yearly averageData: US Energy Information Administration, Europe Brent spot price FOB (series RBRTE), annual, Public domain (US government work, Energy Information Administration). Drawn by One Young India.
Terraced steps of a vast open pit cut into red earth, forested hills on the horizon.An open iron ore mine in Keonjhar district, Odisha: terraced pits cut deep into the red earth.Photo: Bikashkumargiri1997, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A huge concrete dam with a row of white pipes running down to a power house, water spraying into the river below.The Itaipu dam on the Parana river, built together by Brazil and Paraguay, which share the river and the electricity it makes.Photo: "Usina Hidroelétrica Itaipu Binacional / Itaipu Dam" by Deni Williams from São Paulo, Brasil, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A wide brown river under a cloudy sky, with moored boats with blue and grey roofs along the near bank and green hills beyond.The Mekong at the Golden Triangle, where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, seen from the Thai bank.Photo: "Sop-Ruak Thailand Golden-Triangle-02" by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Part 3: Cities, climate and people on the move

India's west coast at night from orbit: city lights spread inland and green fishing-boat lights dot the dark sea.India's west coast at night from the International Space Station, December 2025.Photo: NASA Johnson Space Center, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
A narrow straight lane between high walls of ancient baked brick, under a clear sky.A street between walls of baked brick at Mohenjo-daro, one of the planned cities of the Indus valley.Photo: "Street - Mohenjodaro" by Saqib Qayyum, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A long rectangular basin edged with old baked-brick walls, shallow water and dry grass inside, under a blue sky.The brick basin at Lothal, Gujarat, which the Archaeological Survey of India identifies as a tidal dockyard.Photo: Jashjashjash, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
DataShare of the world's people living in rural and in urban areasData: UN DESA, World Urbanization Prospects 2018, via Our World in Data, CC BY 4.0. Drawn by One Young India.
A sprawling city at night from orbit, a web of grey-white lights and roads around a dark winding river.Delhi at night from the International Space Station in 2025, its lights spreading out in every direction.Photo: NASA Johnson Space Center / Don Pettit, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
Dozens of round clay pots with rows of small holes, heaped together in warm sunlight.Clay pots stacked in Kumbharwada, the potters' quarter of Dharavi in Mumbai, where small workshops make goods sold across the country.Photo: SriChinnu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India. The crop is shared under the same licence.
Flood water covering an airport from the air, parked aircraft standing in it, green bushes in the foreground.Chennai's airport under water in the floods of December 2015, seen from the air.Photo: Indian Air Force, GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons.
VideoJust How Much Hotter are Treeless Streets?From the channel PBS Terra. Watch the full video.
A concrete government building with a sweeping curved roof, reflected in a long still pool.The Palace of Assembly in Chandigarh's Capitol Complex, designed by Le Corbusier for the city planned on open land after independence.Photo: UnpetitproleX, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
DataGlobal mean sea level measured from satellites, yearly averageData: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, global mean sea level from TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason and Sentinel-6 altimeters, version 5.2 (PO.DAAC), Public domain (US government work, NASA). Drawn by One Young India.
Forested mountain slopes under heavy monsoon clouds, a beam of light falling into the valley and mist rising from the trees.Monsoon clouds over the Western Ghats in Kerala, where the monsoon first reaches India's mainland.Photo: "Spotlight on a landscape" by Nagesh Jayaraman from Chennai, India, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India.
DataMoney sent home to India by people working abroad, each yearData: World Bank, World Development Indicators, personal remittances received (current US$), India, CC BY 4.0. Drawn by One Young India.
A long passenger train crossing a red iron truss bridge over still water, palm trees on the far bank.An express train crossing an iron bridge in India.Photo: Jaswantop, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A huge spiral of white cloud with a small round eye over a dark blue bay, the green coast curving around it.Cyclone Amphan over the Bay of Bengal in May 2020, seen by a NASA satellite as it headed for the coasts of India and Bangladesh.Image: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
A thin curving strip of land with houses and trees between a pale blue lagoon and the dark ocean, seen from a plane.Funafuti atoll in Tuvalu, from an aeroplane: a thin strip of land between the lagoon and the open ocean.Photo: Rosodo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India. The crop is shared under the same licence.
Dark green mangrove islands cut by winding brown channels that open into a muddy sea, seen from orbit.Mangrove islands and river channels of the Sundarbans, where the delta meets the Bay of Bengal, from the International Space Station.Photo: NASA, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India.

Part 4: Trade routes, chokepoints and your question

Singapore lit up at night, seen from space: dense orange city lights, bright port areas and dark sea around the island.Singapore, beside the Strait of Malacca, at night from the International Space Station.Photo: NASA Johnson Space Center, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
A low stone building with a domed roof in a green mountain valley, under a cloudy sky.Tash Rabat, a stone caravanserai in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, where travellers on the old routes across Asia could stop.Photo: "Caravanserai- Tash Rabat" by Raki_Man, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A worn gold coin showing the head of a Roman emperor in profile, Latin letters around the edge, a cut across the face.A gold coin of the Roman emperor Augustus, from a hoard found at Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu, now in the British Museum.Photo: "Augustus Coin Pudukottai Hoard India" by PHGCOM, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A rocky peninsula reaching into a narrow blue strait between two coasts of brown desert, seen from space.The Strait of Hormuz, where the Gulf opens to the Gulf of Oman.Image: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
A long dark strait between two green coasts dotted with small white clouds, muddy water spreading from river mouths.The Strait of Malacca, between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra.Image: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
A narrow strait between two desert coasts with a small island in it, the deep sea dark blue and the shallows turquoise.Bab-⁠el-⁠Mandeb, at the southern end of the Red Sea.Image: "Bab-⁠el-⁠Mandeb Strait, Red Sea" by Coordenação-Geral de Observação da Terra/INPE, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Green land, lakes and a city beside the sea from orbit, with small white clouds scattered across it.Panama, where the canal crosses the narrow land between two oceans.Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
A dark blue gulf between desert coasts seen from space, a port town at its narrow northern tip and ships scattered across the water.Ships waiting in the Gulf of Suez, at the canal's southern end, while it was blocked in March 2021, seen by the Landsat 8 satellite.Image: NASA Earth Observatory (Lauren Dauphin and Joshua Stevens), using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India.
A wide aerial panorama of a busy strait, with ships at anchor, marinas and rows of container cranes along the shore.The Singapore Strait and the container cranes of Pasir Panjang, from the air in 2016.Photo: Bob Tan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Tall container cranes lit at night beside dark water, their lights reflected in the ripples, the sky deep blue.Container cranes at the Vallarpadam terminal in Kochi, at night.Photo: Ranjithsiji, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
DataShare of India's electricity made from the sun and the windData: Ember, yearly electricity data, India, generation from wind and solar, CC BY 4.0. Drawn by One Young India.
Two concrete cooling towers and a red and white chimney behind a field of yellow sunflowers.A coal power station near Rajpura, Punjab, beyond a field of sunflowers.Photo: Npl-User1234, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A pale cream mineral specimen with fine parallel streaks, on a black background.Spodumene, a mineral mined for lithium.Photo: Shannon Heinle, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A lumpy black mineral specimen with a shiny surface and patches of green, on a white background.Heterogenite, a cobalt ore, from a mine near Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Photo: "Heterogenite, Chrysocolla" by Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
DataCobalt mined in 2025, by countryData: US Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, cobalt, world mine production (2025 estimates), Public domain (US government work, US Geological Survey). Drawn by One Young India.
Rectangles of blue and green evaporation ponds on a brown salt flat, seen from orbit, with mountains at one edge.Evaporation ponds on the Salar de Atacama in Chile, from the International Space Station.Photo: NASA, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
DataSingapore's income per person, at 2015 pricesData: World Bank, World Development Indicators, GDP per capita (constant 2015 US$), Singapore, CC BY 4.0. Drawn by One Young India.
A hillside view down a town street lined with cars and buildings, a tall border fence running down the right side.The border fence through Nogales before 2011: Nogales, Sonora, in Mexico on its left, and Nogales, Arizona, in the United States on its right.Photo: "Ambos Nogales circa 2008" by Elnogalense, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Earth from space, centred on the Indian Ocean, with Asia, Africa and Australia under swirls of white cloud.The Eastern Hemisphere in NASA's Blue Marble: the same Earth the course began with.Image: NASA images by Reto Stöckli, based on data from NASA and NOAA, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.

The free preview

The Earth from space, centred on the Indian Ocean, with Asia, Africa and Australia under swirls of white cloud.The Eastern Hemisphere in NASA's Blue Marble, a picture of the Earth put together from many satellite images.Image: NASA images by Reto Stöckli, based on data from NASA and NOAA, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
A straight stone-lined canal running between bright green paddy fields, with banana plants and coconut palms beyond.A canal between paddy fields at Thanneermukkom, in Kerala's Alappuzha district.Photo: Vis M, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India. The crop is shared under the same licence.
The Earth seen from above the North Pole, with the white island of Greenland just below the pole among the northern lands.Greenland, the white island just below the pole, as the globe shows it from above the North Pole, in a picture made from NASA satellite images.Image: NASA, public domain (US government work, NASA), via Wikimedia Commons.
Part of Mercator's 1569 world map, engraved in black and white: Greenland and the North Atlantic, with a seam between two sheets.Mercator's world map of 1569, around Greenland, which it draws far bigger than it is.Map: Gerardus Mercator, public domain (author died more than 70 years ago), via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by One Young India.

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