The Problem with Mapping Barsoom

I have been trying for a while now to create a decent map of Barsoom. Consulting various sources, taking notes from the books, looking at the many other homemade maps available online. One thing becomes rapidly clear. There is no definitive map of Barsoom. Contradiction after contradiction abounds. Even the books seem inconsistant - though it is harder to tell with words compared to actual pictures.

Time is running short and it looks like I'm going to have to just pick what I like best aesthetically  and create a map that works best for a semi-sandbox style game to flesh out the Barsoom-inspired Mars campaign section of the book.

Here are just a few examples of Mars maps floating about the interwebs.

One of the better maps came in the John Carter Warlord of Mars boardgame/wargame by SPI:

Another one I like is from the almost-RPG John Carter Adventure Handbook published by Heritage models:

But, of all the various maps of Mars out there, by far one of the worst is the one in the ill-fated Warlord of Mars published by TSR - which was quickly rescinded for copyright violation:

This is a very interesting topic, worthy of several posts, so I'm sure I'll have more to say about it in the coming days as I finish up the version of this map for WotRP.

Discuss this on the WotRP forum, where I'll be posting more details and images.