diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 8e05c927d8..967c9f77cd 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ answer newbie questions, and generally made Django that much better:
     Esdras Beleza <linux@esdrasbeleza.com>
     Chris Bennett <chrisrbennett@yahoo.com>
     James Bennett
-    Ben Godfrey <http://aftnn.org>
+    Julian Bez
     Arvis Bickovskis <viestards.lists@gmail.com>
     Paul Bissex <http://e-scribe.com/>
     Simon Blanchard
@@ -166,6 +166,7 @@ answer newbie questions, and generally made Django that much better:
     glin@seznam.cz
     martin.glueck@gmail.com
     Artyom Gnilov <boobsd@gmail.com>
+    Ben Godfrey <http://aftnn.org>
     GomoX <gomo@datafull.com>
     Guilherme Mesquita Gondim <semente@taurinus.org>
     Mario Gonzalez <gonzalemario@gmail.com>
diff --git a/django/contrib/sitemaps/__init__.py b/django/contrib/sitemaps/__init__.py
index 30949837e4..13e667e142 100644
--- a/django/contrib/sitemaps/__init__.py
+++ b/django/contrib/sitemaps/__init__.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-from django.core import urlresolvers
+from django.core import urlresolvers, paginator
 import urllib
 
 PING_URL = "http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ping"
@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@ def ping_google(sitemap_url=None, ping_url=PING_URL):
     urllib.urlopen("%s?%s" % (ping_url, params))
 
 class Sitemap:
+    # This limit is defined by Google. See the index documentation at
+    # http://sitemaps.org/protocol.php#index.
+    limit = 50000
+
     def __get(self, name, obj, default=None):
         try:
             attr = getattr(self, name)
@@ -49,11 +53,17 @@ class Sitemap:
     def location(self, obj):
         return obj.get_absolute_url()
 
-    def get_urls(self):
+    def _get_paginator(self):
+        if not hasattr(self, "paginator"):
+            self.paginator = paginator.Paginator(self.items(), self.limit)
+        return self.paginator
+    paginator = property(_get_paginator)
+
+    def get_urls(self, page=1):
         from django.contrib.sites.models import Site
         current_site = Site.objects.get_current()
         urls = []
-        for item in self.items():
+        for item in self.paginator.page(page).object_list:
             loc = "http://%s%s" % (current_site.domain, self.__get('location', item))
             url_info = {
                 'location':   loc,
diff --git a/django/contrib/sitemaps/views.py b/django/contrib/sitemaps/views.py
index 86ef1e3526..7a5fe38a08 100644
--- a/django/contrib/sitemaps/views.py
+++ b/django/contrib/sitemaps/views.py
@@ -3,14 +3,22 @@ from django.template import loader
 from django.contrib.sites.models import Site
 from django.core import urlresolvers
 from django.utils.encoding import smart_str
+from django.core.paginator import EmptyPage, PageNotAnInteger
 
 def index(request, sitemaps):
     current_site = Site.objects.get_current()
     sites = []
     protocol = request.is_secure() and 'https' or 'http'
-    for section in sitemaps.keys():
+    for section, site in sitemaps.items():
+        if callable(site):
+            pages = site().paginator.num_pages
+        else:
+            pages = site.paginator.num_pages
         sitemap_url = urlresolvers.reverse('django.contrib.sitemaps.views.sitemap', kwargs={'section': section})
         sites.append('%s://%s%s' % (protocol, current_site.domain, sitemap_url))
+        if pages > 1:
+            for page in range(2, pages+1):
+                sites.append('%s://%s%s?p=%s' % (protocol, current_site.domain, sitemap_url, page))
     xml = loader.render_to_string('sitemap_index.xml', {'sitemaps': sites})
     return HttpResponse(xml, mimetype='application/xml')
 
@@ -22,10 +30,16 @@ def sitemap(request, sitemaps, section=None):
         maps.append(sitemaps[section])
     else:
         maps = sitemaps.values()
+    page = request.GET.get("p", 1)
     for site in maps:
-        if callable(site):
-            urls.extend(site().get_urls())
-        else:
-            urls.extend(site.get_urls())
+        try:
+            if callable(site):
+                urls.extend(site().get_urls(page))
+            else:
+                urls.extend(site.get_urls(page))
+        except EmptyPage:
+            raise Http404("Page %s empty" % page)
+        except PageNotAnInteger:
+            raise Http404("No page '%s'" % page)
     xml = smart_str(loader.render_to_string('sitemap.xml', {'urlset': urls}))
     return HttpResponse(xml, mimetype='application/xml')
diff --git a/docs/sitemaps.txt b/docs/sitemaps.txt
index 6a16e61879..3e7411c168 100644
--- a/docs/sitemaps.txt
+++ b/docs/sitemaps.txt
@@ -282,6 +282,10 @@ This will automatically generate a ``sitemap.xml`` file that references
 both ``sitemap-flatpages.xml`` and ``sitemap-blog.xml``. The ``Sitemap``
 classes and the ``sitemaps`` dict don't change at all.
 
+If one of your sitemaps is going to have more than 50,000 URLs you should 
+create an index file. Your sitemap will be paginated and the index will 
+reflect that.
+
 Pinging Google
 ==============