The Wallchart of World History - Format and Design

Format and Design

The chart maintains a Victorian design (even in updated versions) and is thoroughly accompanied by illustrations.

As indicators of time, all through is the chart divided into big black posts which mark centuries and thin red lines which mark decades (with very thin red lines occasionally marking single years).

Additionally, big red crosses indicate great persecutions of Christians at the times of the Roman Empire and small red crosses stand for each of the crusades. Red circles indicate ecumenical councils. Also, question marks indicate uncertainties (they are mostly seen at the beginning of the timechart, where the certainty of events and the accuracy of dates are most disputed).

The nation streams are segmented into different colours, each colour indicating the reign of a particular ruler or a certain type of government. In some cases, prime ministers are shown in the lower half of nation streams and presidents in the upper half. Coloured scrolls and strips near the top of the chart stand for important people other than the rulers and other political leaders shown on the nation streams. These streams grow wider or thinner in accordance to historical context. Some streams divide to indicate a split in the nation (e.g. to indicate the independence of a state) or flow into others to illustrate its conquest, invasion, or acquisition by such other nation.

The Independent describes the chart's peculiar design for a peculiarly big scope of human history as something that...

(...) resembles an unusually complicated digestive system, with its lines, loops, bulges and branches. —Suzi Feay from The Independent