Ultimate Fan Map Charts Indiana Jones' Global Explorations

September 7, 2011— -- "Raiders of the Lost Ark" fans and travel aficionados can now buy a detailed map with the locations of each of Indiana Jones' famed archeological discoveries. The map comes just in time for the 30th anniversary of the original movie's release.

Artist Matt Busch, who specializes in movie poster design, has created an elaborate homage to the Indiana Jones empire with his global map, marking the site of 36 artifacts found by the fedora-wearing, whip-slinging crusader during his legendary travels.

Busch, based in northern Michigan, began work on the Indiana Jones World Map more than three years ago as an unpaid project when he realized that there wasn't a single illustrated map within the Indiana Jones empire. There are books, comics, the Young Indy television show, fan sites, video games, toys galore, a Disneyland theme park ride. But no map.

The artist told ABCNews.com that the project was a "huge undertaking" to assure that every artifact would be represented accurately on the map.

"Once the research was over, the real work began. I had to make executive decisions on how to make the research work fit on the map correctly. It was difficult to get the artifacts depicted without covering up the locations where [Indiana Jones] was, and in a lot of cases, I was drawing artifacts which had never been seen by the public before, shown in any movie or book illustration – to figure that out took some finagling. But I'm really happy with how it came out."

Indiana Jones Travels Recounted on World Map

The Lucasfilm-authorized map is currently available on Busch's website, and each of limited-edition 225 posters are autographed and numbered. The sale proceeds will be donated to the American Disabled Veterans fund.

Fans wishing to travel Indy's exotic travel routes can rest assured that the map is geographically accurate, despite the fact that many of the explorer's original adventures took place in the 1930s.

Busch says that the poster appeals to Indiana Jones and exotic travel fans alike. "When 'Indiana Jones' came out, I was a kid and it was the first time something had made me marvel at our own world. It made me realize that there are treasures in ancient things and in geography – I hadn't realized that all those things were cool and it really changed my world."

Ultimately, Busch says that working on this map has inspired him to travel the world. "It makes me want to go to places like India and see these exotic places with their archeological sites, wonders and all these neat things that here in the U.S. we aren't exposed to."