With the Age of Discovery, during the 15th to 18th centuries, world maps became increasingly accurate; exploration of Antarctica, Australia, and the interior of Africa by western mapmakers was left to the 19th and early 20th century.

The oldest known world maps date to Mesopotamia as well as the Greek and Roman empires. Very few of these maps exist in their original forms, but were reconstructed by later cartographers based on extensive descriptions.

Humans have been making maps for thousands of years and the history of cartography (mapmaking) can be traced all the way back to ancient cave paintings. These early maps depicted the stars and showed how constellations would have looked at the time.

2020年7月13日 · People have invented and used maps to describe, clarify, and navigate their route within the world. The atlas of the ancient maps below contains depictions of our planet from Prehistory to the Age of Discovery and the appearance of modern geography during the early contemporary period.

2016年11月21日 · History’s earliest known world map was scratched on clay tablets in the ancient city of Babylon sometime around 600 B.C. The star-shaped map measures just five-by-three inches and shows the...

2011年1月29日 · Throughout history, there are five maps that have been particularly noteworthy. From the earliest maps to maps that have played a significant role in history, listed here chronologically are notable events in the history of mapmaking as well as the world’s oldest maps.

Three thousand years ago, our ancestors began a long experiment in figuring out how they fit into the world, by inventing a bold new tool: the map. One of the oldest surviving maps is, ironically,...

2022年10月28日 · The earliest known world maps date to classical antiquity, the oldest examples of the 6th to 5th centuries BCE still based on the flat Earth paradigm. World maps assuming a spherical Earth first ap...

2025年1月28日 · Map - Ancient World, Geography, Cartography: The earliest specimens thus far discovered that are indisputably portrayals of land features are the Babylonian tablets previously mentioned; certain land drawings found in Egypt and paintings discovered in …

The earliest known world maps are from the 6th to 5th centuries BC. They show the world in a different and very simple shape. The developments of Greek geography during this time, notably by Eratosthenes and Posidonius led to Ptolemy's world map (2nd century AD). This was authoritative throughout the Middle Ages.