Ptolemy's map of the world
Topic: Maps and Map Scale · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Introduction to Maps"
Meaning
Ptolemy's map of the world is based on the work of Claudius Ptolemy, a Greek scholar of the 2nd century CE. It was drawn on a grid of latitude and longitude, so each place could be given a position. Greek and Arab geographers who worked this way laid the foundation of modern cartography. Using a coordinate grid is the key idea that modern maps still use.
Example
Ptolemy's map shows the known world of his time: Europe, North Africa and Asia up to India. It also shows the Indian Ocean as a closed sea, which we now know is wrong.
Don't confuse with
- Oldest known map: the oldest known map is a Mesopotamian clay tablet from about 2500 BC, much older than Ptolemy's map.
- Mercator projection (1569): this is a later way of drawing the earth on a flat sheet, made to show true direction. Ptolemy's map came much earlier.