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What we do

Since 2017, Cartisan is dedicated to crafting quality topographic maps – the first since Soviet times – and guidebooks for hiking in Armenia. Investing heavily in improving open-data mapping, Cartisan strives so that every outdoor enthusiast can enjoy up-to-date information about all new up-and-coming hiking hotspots across Armenia. Cartisan is proud to be an active supporter of the growing hiking industry in Armenia.

How we craft our hiking maps

Open data is the base on which we build our maps. We significantly contribute to OpenStreetMap, “the Wikipedia of maps”, this means that not only we can use that data, but your hiking and outdoor apps will also get better maps as a result of our work. This is not a bug, even if you don’t buy our paper maps, you’ll get  better hiking experience, and we are happy about it.

The open and public data is not the end of  the story of course, as we combine that with some more obscure and specific datasets that we discover here and there. It’s investigative and manual work, and we love to geek out about it. One day we should write about this too in our blog.

To make our maps, we almost exclusively use Free and Open Source software for every step of the way. We are working on removing that ‘almost’ from the previous sentence.

Topo Maps For Hiking In Armenia

Producing our topographic map could not be done without engaging local communities and experts to validate the data with on the ground missions.

We work in close partnership with organisations such as the Transcaucasian Trail, Trails For Change, and HIKEArmenia, that are on the ground exploring, designing, or simply promoting new trails and trail networks. By working together we can produce new maps as soon as the area is ready for your boots to enjoy it.