If you’re taking your class time travelling, don’t forget to put swisstopo’s historical and aerial photographs in your suitcase. As a teacher, this unique piece of cultural heritage is a precious teaching resource at your fingertips and is suited to a variety of teaching purposes, from history to geography.

Making comparisons

The first map dates back to the year 1844. Pupils immerse themselves in the 175-year history of Swiss maps and familiarise themselves with works such as the historical Dufour and Siegfried maps. Today, swisstopo provides access to approximately 8,000 pages of historical maps. The collection has been carefully restored and digitised. On the virtual journey through time, you will notice how spaces have changed over the course of time and will be able to draw comparisons between different time periods.

Switzerland from the air

swisstopo’s aerial photographs make a valuable addition. The collection consists of snapshots of the landscape since the 1920s. The time travel aerial photographs encompass around 40,000 selected images and are integrated into the viewer at map.geo.admin.ch. You can also view an interconnected mosaic of snapshots dating from 1970 through to the present day. The aerial photographs from 1946 are another point of interest as they were taken during the “American air mission” in record time over the course of a few months. These images are also available as a mosaic.

Learn about the Switzerland of today and of old together with your pupils! You can also go time travelling using the free swisstopo app.

• To the time travelling
• swisstopo app