offline-world-map

Offline World Map for Kiwix (.ZIM)

This project provides an offline, interactive world map packaged as a single ZIM file for use with Kiwix.

It demonstrates that the ZIM file format can be used not only for wiki-style content, but also to deliver a fully interactive, pan-and-zoom world map — including offline place search — using standard web technologies.

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What this is

The Offline World Map is a self-contained map application bundled inside a single .zim file.
When opened in Kiwix, it behaves like a website that works entirely offline.

It includes:

• OpenStreetMap-based map tiles
• Sentinel-2 cloudless satellite imagery
• A Leaflet-based JavaScript map viewer
• An offline place search interface built with Leaflet.Control.Search and GeoNames data

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Why ZIM instead of traditional offline map formats?

Most offline maps are distributed as MBTiles, vector databases, or app-specific formats.
This project explores a different approach: using ZIM as an offline web container.

Advantages:

• Single-file distribution
• Works on all platforms supported by Kiwix (desktop and mobile)
• No dedicated map application required
• Easy to archive and share

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Features

• Global coverage
• Multiple zoom levels
• Map and satellite imagery layers
• Fully offline pan-and-zoom navigation
• Offline place search
• Runs entirely inside the Kiwix reader

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Design decisions

This project intentionally uses pre-rendered raster tiles rather than vector tiles. While vector tiles can significantly reduce storage requirements, they shift cost to client-side computation (geometry decoding, rendering, memory usage), which is difficult to predict across the wide range of devices that run Kiwix.

By serving simple raster tiles from a ZIM file, the map remains lightweight to render and behaves consistently even on older or low-power devices. The large file size also acts as a natural capability filter: devices that can store tens of gigabytes of tiles almost certainly have sufficient CPU and RAM to handle raster rendering smoothly.

Additionally, because a substantial portion of the dataset is satellite imagery — which is inherently raster — vector tiles would not reduce total size as dramatically in this context. The goal is maximum compatibility and predictable performance rather than minimal disk usage.

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Downloads

The ZIM file is available here:

• Gumroad: Offline World Map – ZIM file

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Videos

• Demo of v5 (which introduced search functionality): Offline World Map for Kiwix (v5)
• Demo of v4 (which added Leaflet-based navigation): Offline World Map for Kiwix (v4)
• Demo of v1 (initial release): Offline World Map for Kiwix (v1)

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Licensing and attribution

This project is a compilation and packaging effort.
Individual components are licensed separately:

• OpenStreetMap data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)
• Satellite imagery: Sentinel-2 cloudless (CC BY 4.0, EOX IT Services GmbH)
• Place search data: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
• Leaflet © Vladimir Agafonkin and contributors (BSD 2-Clause)
• Leaflet.Control.Search (MIT-style license)

Compilation, integration, and packaging © Anthony Karam.

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Project metadata

• Project name: Offline World Map
• Format: ZIM file
• Platform: Kiwix (desktop and mobile)
• Category: Offline maps / geographic reference
• Technologies: Leaflet, OpenStreetMap, Sentinel-2, GeoNames
• Author: Anthony Karam
• Canonical URL: https://anthonykaram.github.io/offline-world-map/