Portal:Maps

The Maps and Cartography Portal

In cartography, a map is a two-dimensional representation of the Earth's surface depicting the spatial layout of geographical features. Maps may also incorporate thematic information, such as demographic, economic, environmental, or other socio-economic data. A cartographer must make many decisions when designing a map, including the map scale, coordinate system, symbols, colors, labels, and typography. The selection of a map projection is a critical choice in map design, as every projection introduces characteristic distortions. The Mercator projection was widely used for centuries but has been criticized for depicting European nations enlarged compared to developing countries nearer to the equator.

Maps serve a wide range of purposes. One of the most common uses of maps is route planning, enabling users to find restaurants and other points of interest. Commercial and recreational traffic in the air and water use maps (called "charts" in this context): airplane traffic relies on aeronautical charts, and water traffic uses nautical charts. Scientists use maps to organize spatial data in fields such as geology, meteorology, seismology, and demographics.

Maps are used by governments for administrative functions such as census, electoral districts, property taxation, dispatching police, and coordinating disaster relief. Military and security organizations use maps for mission planning, surveillance, border management, logistics, and intelligence analysis.

One of the earliest preserved maps is from the Akkadian Empire (in modern Iraq) inscribed on a clay tablet and dated to 2300 BCE. In the 5th century BCE, Greeks were drawing maps of their known world, encompassing the Mediterranean Sea and most of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Maps played a major role in the Age of Discovery and were carried by mariners as they explored new lands. The applications of cartography expanded in the late 17th century with the invention of thematic maps, which portrayed a specific kind of data – such as rainfall or population density – in contrast to simply portraying major geographic features such as rivers, mountains, and cities. The rapid expansion of road networks and mass transit systems in the 20th century created a market for mass-produced maps aimed at the traveling public.

The development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the modern era enabled vast amounts of geographic data to be dynamically displayed on computer screens. Unlike paper maps, GIS permits users to interactively zoom, pan, and choose which data to view. Geographic data used for mapmaking may include imagery, scanned paper maps, surveying data, geographical features, and terrain (elevation) data. (Full article...)

Cartography (/kɑːrˈtɒɡrəfi/) is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively. (Full article...)

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The Piri Reis map is a world map compiled in 1513 by the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. Approximately one third of the map survives, housed in the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. After the empire's 1517 conquest of Egypt, Piri Reis presented the 1513 world map to Ottoman Sultan Selim I (r. 1512–1520). It is unknown how Selim used the map, if at all, as it vanished from history until its rediscovery centuries later. When rediscovered in 1929, the remaining fragment garnered international attention as it includes a partial copy of an otherwise lost map by Christopher Columbus.

The map is a portolan chart with compass roses and a windrose network for navigation, rather than lines of longitude and latitude. It contains extensive notes primarily in Ottoman Turkish. The depiction of South America is detailed and accurate for its time. The northwestern coast combines features of Central America and Cuba into a single body of land. Scholars attribute the peculiar arrangement of the Caribbean to a now-lost map from Columbus that merged Cuba into the Asian mainland and Hispaniola with Marco Polo's description of Japan. This reflects Columbus's erroneous claim that he had found a route to Asia. The southern coast of the Atlantic Ocean is most likely a version of Terra Australis. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various map-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The pundit (explorer) cartographer Nain Singh Rawat (19th century) received a Royal Geographical Society gold medal in 1876. (from History of cartography)
Image 2Modern version of the Roman Tabula Peutingeriana (5th century). (from History of cartography)
Image 3A chorochromatic map of world land cover, using hue, value, and saturation to differentiate nominal values (from Cartographic design)
Image 4Infinitesimal elements on the sphere and a normal cylindrical projection (from Scale (map))
Image 5World map Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Ortelius (1570) (from History of cartography)
Image 6An early Western Han dynasty (202 BC – 9 AD) silk map found in tomb 3 of Mawangdui Han tombs site, depicting the Kingdom of Changsha and Kingdom of Nanyue in southern China (note: the south direction is oriented at the top, north at the bottom). (from History of cartography)
Image 7Lambert's normal cylindrical equal-area projection with Tissot's indicatrix of deformation (from Scale (map))
Image 8Nautical chart by Pedro Reinel (c. 1504), one of the first based on astronomical observations and to depict a scale of latitudes. (from History of cartography)
Image 9A map of Sikkim, India using shaded relief and hypsometric tints (a form of isarithm) to visualize terrain (from Cartographic design)
Image 10Universalis Cosmographia, the Waldseemüller wall map dated 1507, depicts the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Ocean separating Asia from the Americas. (from History of cartography)
Image 11A general map of the world by Samuel Dunn, 1794, containing star chart, map of the Solar System, map of the Moon and other features along with Earth's both hemispheres. (from History of cartography)
Image 12The Salviati Planisphere, a 1526 version of the Padrón Real provided by Charles V to the cardinal who officiated his wedding to Isabella of Portugal. (from History of cartography)
Image 13The world according to Herodotus, 440 BC (from History of cartography)
Image 14"Mapa de los Estados Unidos de Méjico by John Distrunell, the 1847 map used during the negotiations of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ending the Mexican–American War. (from History of cartography)
Image 153D cartography of Washington State, Mount Rainier National Park, Pinnacle Peak trail. (from Cartographic design)
Image 16The Yu Ji Tu, or Map of the Tracks of Yu Gong, carved into stone in 1137, located in the Stele Forest of Xi'an. This 3 ft (0.91 m) squared map features a graduated scale of 100 li for each rectangular grid. China's coastline and river systems are clearly defined and precisely pinpointed on the map. Yu Gong is in reference to the Chinese deity described in the geographical chapter of the Classic of History, dated 5th century BC. (from History of cartography)
Image 17A survey of Boston Harbor from Atlantic Neptune. (from History of cartography)
Image 18Clay tablet with map of the Babylonian city of Nippur (c. 1400 BC) (from History of cartography)
Image 19Infinitesimal elements on the sphere and a normal cylindrical projection (from Scale (map))
Image 20The first Japanese printed map to depict the world, including Europe and America. Printed by woodblock in 1710, composed by the Buddhist monk Rokashi Hotan. (from History of cartography)
Image 21Reconstruction of Pomponius Mela's world map. (from History of cartography)
Image 22The Propaganda Map, a 1529 version of the Padrón Real now held by the Vatican Library. (from History of cartography)
Image 23A bar scale with the nominal scale expressed as "1:600 000", meaning 1 cm on the map corresponds to 600,000 cm=6 km on the ground. (from Scale (map))
Image 24The Fra Mauro map, a medieval European map, was made around 1450 by the Italian monk Fra Mauro. It is a circular world map drawn on parchment and set in a wooden frame, about two meters in diameter. (from History of cartography)
Image 25Map of the “Inhabited Quarter” by Sadiq Isfahani from Jaunpur c.1647. This was one of the only surviving Indian made maps. (from History of cartography)
Image 26The world according to Hekatæus, 500 BC (from History of cartography)
Image 27The Equal Earth projection (2018), an increasingly popular equal-area pseudocylindrical projection for world maps (from Cartographic design)
Image 28A chart of an unidentified area (from History of cartography)
Image 29Possibly the oldest surviving map has been engraved on this mammoth tusk, dated to 25,000 BC, found from Pavlov in the Czech Republic. (from History of cartography)
Image 30The equidistant projection with Tissot's indicatrix of deformation (from Scale (map))
Image 31The cartographic process (from Cartographic design)
Image 32Martin Behaim's Erdapfel (1492) is considered to be the oldest surviving terrestrial globe. (from History of cartography)
Image 33Charles Joseph Minard's map of Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812 (1844) has been long recognized as a masterwork of cartographic design at a time when such was difficult and rare. (from Cartographic design)
Image 34Al-Masudi's world map (10th century) (from History of cartography)
Image 35The Tabula Rogeriana, drawn by Muhammad al-Idrisi for Roger II of Sicily in 1154. Note that the north is at the bottom, and so the map appears "upside down" compared to modern cartographic conventions. (from History of cartography)
Image 36The Da Ming Hun Yi Tu map, dating c. 1390, exists in multicolour format. (from History of cartography)
Image 37The Mercator projection with Tissot's indicatrix of deformation. (The distortion increases without limit at higher latitudes) (from Scale (map))
Image 38The Mercator 1569 world map (from History of cartography)
Image 39A portrait of a Dutch mapmaker looking up intently from his charts and holding a caliper, 1714. (from History of cartography)
Image 40The Winkel tripel projection with Tissot's indicatrix of deformation (from Scale (map))
Image 41Blaeu's world map, originally prepared by Joan Blaeu for his Atlas Maior, published in the first book of the Atlas Van Loon (1664) (from History of cartography)
Image 42A US civil war hachure paper map made in 1867 by cartographer Nathaniel Michler vs. modern aerial photos over Chancellorsville, Virginia (from History of cartography)
Image 43Illustrated map (from Cartographic design)
Image 44A graphical or bar scale. A map would also usually give its scale numerically ("1:50,000", for instance, means that one cm on the map represents 50,000cm of real space, which is 500 meters) (from Scale (map))
Image 45Map of Biscayne National Park, Florida, using a variety of point symbols, along with line and area symbols. Note the use of coordinated fill and stroke symbols for the national park area to solve the challenge of a water boundary. (from Cartographic design)
Image 46The Gough Map, a road map of 14th-century Britain (from History of cartography)
Image 47Scale variation for the Lambert (green) and Gall (red) equal area projections. (from Scale (map))
Image 48CIA map of Iraq, following typical labeling guidelines to maximize legibility and association (from Cartographic design)
Image 49World Map by Juan de la Cosa (1500), the first map showing the Americas. (from History of cartography)
Image 50Map of the Holy Land, Pietro Vesconte, 1321. Described by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld as "the first non-Ptolemaic map of a definite country". (from History of cartography)

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...By continuing to invoke Wilson's map and the Treaty of Sèvres we are in fact promoting an unjust notion of our homeland. And this is neither realistic nor in any way conducive to an equitable understanding with other people in the region. Even worse, to do so is to propagate the historically disastrous notion that the best interests of the Armenian people are better defined and "guaranteed" by imperialist governments than by the Armenian people themselves.

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— Monte Melkonian, The Right to Struggle

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Juan de la Cosa (c. 1450 – 28 February 1510) was a Castilean navigator and cartographer, known for designing the earliest European world map which incorporated the territories of the Americas discovered in the 15th century.

De la Cosa was the owner and master of the Santa María, and thus played an important role in the first and second voyage of Christopher Columbus to the West Indies. (Full article...)

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Credit: MesserWoland

Map of the Giza pyramid complex, located 20 km (12.5 mi) southwest of Cairo, Egypt. This Ancient Egyptian necropolis consists of the Great Pyramid, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Menkaure, along with a number of smaller satellite edifices, known as "queens" pyramids, causeways and valley pyramids, and most noticeably the Great Sphinx. The site has attracted visitors and tourists since classical antiquity, when these Old Kingdom monuments were already over 2,000 years old.

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Did you know

... that Bartholomäus Scultetus tried to become the court cartographer of Ivan the Terrible?
... that the Canadian League for Peace and Democracy organized a 10,000-person rally at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto to protest a 2,500-person fascist rally?
... that Kathryn Maple won the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition twice in three years?
... that Kaneza Schaal and Christopher Myers created Cartography after seeing a young boy playing music?
... that Maki Narukido researched the characters' travel times in her manga The End of the World With You using Google Maps?