For anyone else confused (this took me the longest time, skimming the comments and then opening the article): no, indeed, this has nothing to do with GPS. They mean coordinates, not satellites. It's about indexing locations of old maps

If you just want to view some places without giving location access, use this link: https://dev.explore.allmaps.org/

The map portal of the Swiss government also has a bunch of old map layers available. For example, here's Zurich in 1883.

https://map.geo.admin.ch/#/map?lang=en&center=2682327.37,124...

Can I plugin my app here? If on Android, use navigateanymap.eu, snap a picture of that map from 1565, match some features using OpenStreetMap (although things like rivers, roads and buildings may be different from that year, making matching more difficult) and walk using that old map.

A bit off topic, but the proliferation of maps and GPS is not celebrated enough IMHO. It's such a mind shift regarding freedom of movement - as a kid (1990s), going somewhere new carried a strong risk of getting lost, so we rarely ventured far. Even if we had maps, they were not detailed enough, and it was difficult to figure out where you are exactly. Many from my parent's generation (now in their 60s, 70s) never learned to work with maps (with or without GPS) which limits them to travel alone only to places they already know. There are also other factors (ability to call for help, looking up your travel connections etc.), but IMHO the detailed maps + GPS is the biggest factor in this mindshift where travelling/exploring anywhere is easy and accessible to anyone.

For the UK the Scottish national library has a similar map finder.

https://maps.nls.uk

With a bit of a london focus (since that's where I live)

https://www.layersoflondon.org/

https://mapco.net/

https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/agas.htm

Finally this site:

https://www.oldmapsonline.org/

A few of them definitely aren't lined up right, but wow! What a fun thing! Today I learned the bike path that runs by my apartment was once a railroad.

(Not the same thing, but related)

Map platforms from Brazilian cities that allow browsing with old map layers:

Curitiba 1857

https://geocuritiba.ippuc.org.br/portal/apps/webappviewer/in...

São Paulo 1930

https://geosampa.prefeitura.sp.gov.br/PaginasPublicas/_SBC.a...

The longitude problem wasn't really even solved until 1773 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_longitude

About 20 years ago I used OziExplorer https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Oziexplorer to also georeference (back then I think we just called it calibration) maps about e.g. POTS installations from the 1950s and then use a serial GPS and a laptop to navigate them. It was fun to see the change.

Cool idea! I can't seem to be able to find information about the maps though, like date, author or something similar. I'd really like that!

If you like this kind of things the French state geographic portal (https://www.geoportail.gouv.fr) lets you load crazy tiles like the Cassiny maps (from 1682) and the military staff map from 1820.

It's a blast, but in French only so you'll have to fiddle around a little.

How do I use this? When I enter an address in the search box it just comes up with "Error:". There is no map showing.

A friend worked on something similar for historic maps of Japan

https://stroly.com/ja/search?keyword=History

Does the link lead to a completely different website for anyone else? The page does not load but the domain is completely different.

neat!

One important thing which is missing is the year of the map (a name would be nice too, but not as important as the year)

Also, on Android, all icons blink on the index page, but that's pretty minor.

Using gps to understand a map of 1565?