History of Mapping

Mapping

• Cartography or mapmaking, has been part of the human history for a long time, possibly up to 8,000 years.[1] From cave paintings to ancient maps of Babylon, Greece, andAsia, through the Age of Exploration, and on into the 21st century, people have created and used maps as essential tools to help them define, explain, and navigate their way through the world.

• Maps began as two-dimensional drawings but can also adopt three-dimensional shapes (globes, models) and be stored in purely numerical forms.

Maps of the Medieval Age• The Fra Mauro map, one great medieval

European map, was made around 1450 by the Venetian monk Fra Mauro. It is a circular world map drawn on parchment and set in a wooden frame, about two meters in diameter

Early American Maps

• What is different about historic maps than maps we use today?

• Where was most of the information gathered from (air or the ground)?

Todays Maps

• Taken from satellite sensors

• Give better locations• Provide more accurate

elevations and distances

Todays Most Used Virtual Maps