The United Nations has launched the World Digital Library, a tremendous Web site that currently has about 1,200 documents for your afternoon perusal. I’m right now looking at an old map of Portugal, because I’m a huge nerd. It should be a good partner site for those of you who like to do the Wikipedia Shuffle every now and then.

The site, which took four years to put together and is being run by UNESCO, has some of the great works of human civilization. Check out old maps, read the first Aztec mention of Jesus, watch Arab scholars invent algebra, etc. It’s all of academic intrigue, so if you’re not into that type of thing then you may want to move along.

Each document is accompanied by an explanation that’s available in seven languages, including Arabic and Chinese (not just Western languages, then).

I don’t know, maybe some of you guys will get a kick out of it. If not, carry on.

via Washington Post