Wikimapia
geographic online encyclopedia created by Alexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Saveliev in 2006
Wikimapia (stylized as wikimapia) is a Russian geographic online encyclopedia project. The project implements an interactive clickable web map that utilizes Google Maps with a geographically referenced wiki system, with the aim to mark and describe all geographical objects in the world.
History
Wikimapia was created in Russia by Alexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Saveliev in May 2006. The data, a crowdsourced collection of places marked by registered users and guests, has grown to over 32,000,000 objects as of May 2026 and is released under the Creative Commons License Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA). Although the project's name is reminiscent of that of Wikipedia, and the creators share parts of the "wiki" philosophy, it is not a part of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation family of wikis. Since 2018, following years of declining popularity, the site has gone nearly inactive with the site's owners having been unable to pay for the usage of Google Maps and the site's social media accounts having remained derelict. A study from 2017 remarked that the site's popularity was in a steady decline since 2012.
After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the page was closed on 2 March 2022. As of 13 March 2022 access to the site was met with the following message: "Wikimapia is turned off for some time (days or even weeks). The site is under cyber attack all these days.
“Wikimapia” enters the record as geographic online encyclopedia created by Alexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Saveliev in 2006. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Wikimapia, geographic and online can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Wikimapia” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Wikimapia, geographic and online provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q187491. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2006, 2026, 2018 and 2017.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Wikimapia”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Wikimapia primary sources, Wikimapia archive and Wikimapia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Wikimapia”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Wikimapia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.