Bible Atlas App
Public Help — Biblical Atlas
Clark’s Biblical Atlas is an interactive mapping system for exploring biblical geography, historical regions, journeys, routes, locations, and other geographically related study material.
Rather than presenting one enormous map containing everything at once, the Atlas organizes information into Categories. Selecting a category determines which geographic Features, Points of Interest, and explanatory labels belong to that particular map.
This allows the same underlying geographic information to be reused in many different studies without duplicating it.
Categories
Begin by selecting the map category you want to examine.
A category can represent a particular biblical or historical subject—for example, a period, empire, event, journey, or other geographic study.
The Atlas then assembles the appropriate material for that category.
A category can contain:
Features — geographic regions, borders, routes or other mapped shapes.
Points of Interest — specific locations such as cities or important sites.
Map Labels — explanatory text placed directly on the map.
Features
Features can represent several kinds of geographic information:
Points — individual mapped locations.
Routes — lines showing journeys or movement.
Regions/Borders — polygons showing territories or geographic areas.
Multi-part Regions — areas composed of several geographically separate polygons.
Some routes include directional arrows, helping show the direction in which a journey proceeded.
Clicking a Feature allows you to examine its associated information. Depending upon the map configuration, the Atlas can also frame the Feature automatically and emphasize its outline.
Points of Interest
Points of Interest are represented by yellow markers.
POIs are reusable locations. A city such as Rome, for example, does not have to be created repeatedly merely because it appears on several maps.
A POI can also have information specific to the map you are currently examining. The same location may therefore have a different explanatory label or summary depending upon why that place matters in the particular study.
POI controls allow individual locations to be shown or hidden without unnecessarily cluttering the map.
Map Labels
Some maps include additional labels that identify geographic areas or provide explanatory information.
These labels are separate from geographic Features and Points of Interest, allowing the Atlas to provide useful map annotation without pretending every piece of text represents a physical geographic object.
Composite Features
Some larger geographic areas are constructed from several existing regions.
The Atlas calls these Composite Features.
Rather than creating another permanent copy of all those geographic boundaries, the Composite Feature dynamically uses the current geometry of its component regions.
This means improvements made later to an underlying region can automatically be reflected wherever that region is reused.
Feature Information
Depending upon the available information, selecting or hovering over a Feature or POI can display its label and explanatory summary.
Some Features can also contain optional resources, including images or additional supporting information.
Images can be viewed at a larger size without leaving the Atlas.
Navigating the Map
You can pan and zoom the Atlas normally.
The Atlas also provides navigation controls for Features and Points of Interest. Depending upon the configured map behavior, selecting an item can automatically frame that geographic object.
POI navigation was deliberately designed so you can inspect a location and return to your previous geographic perspective rather than continually losing the larger map context.
Printing or Copying a Map
The Map Navigation menu provides controls for Print Map and Copy Map Image.
This allows a useful Atlas view to be retained for personal study, notes, teaching material, or other appropriate uses. A download fallback is available where direct image copying is not supported by the browser.