the map or map It is an image of the Earth’s body or part of it. Maps differ from aerial photographs in that they contain information and clarification of geographical areas. The science of cartography is called cartography. Today, maps can be drawn with computer GIS systems, which are geo (spatial) databases that contain information about what is in the maps. The map also in its broadest sense is, according to F. Joly: “a geometric idiomatic representation of relative states and situations, of tangible or abstract phenomena, that can be located in the field.” It is also: “a flat, simplified, and idiomatic geometric representation of all or part of the Earth’s surface.” A map is also known as an illustration of space or a region of space with prominent features that show the relationship between the elements in the drawn space, such as objects, regions, and scenes. If the maps are printed on paper or shown on a computer screen, they are an imaginary picture of the world. The reason is that the globe is not flat in shape as it is with paper or screens. The only maps that aren’t fantasy are the ball ones. Maps are usually two-dimensional (except for spheres). 3D maps could only be drawn with a computer.

Each map scale determines the ratio of the image to be realistic dimensions. Of course, the larger the map, the more details it contains. There are several types of maps, most notably the political and geographical maps. Political maps focused on clarifying the border between the countries. Geographical maps are concerned with illustrating the physical geography aspects of the regions. The map may be a set of lines, such as a map of roads and geometric shapes, or it may be more than just lines, as in photographs and color drawings used in topography, stratigraphy, and tomography. Also, most modern maps use the geographic north as a reference direction. As for cartography, it is at the same time a science, an art, and a technique. The French Committee for Cartography defines the term cartography as “the totality of scientific, artistic and technical studies and processes that are carried out from direct (field) operations or those derived from the exploitation of documents with the aim of preparing and placing maps, designs and other forms of expression as well as their uses.”

Map history[عدل]

The history of maps is deep in the past and is believed to go back thousands of years, starting from drawing on caves to the Babylonian and Greek civilizations, then the Middle Ages and ending with the modern era. Also, the drawings of imagination had preceded the drawings of reality, as imaginary drawings of the heavens were found 18,000 years ago on the walls of the caves.

Babel Civilization[عدل]

Accurate drawings began by the Babylonians. A clay tablet measuring 7.6 x 6.8 cm was found in 1930 AD near Kirkuk, Iraq. On it was drawn a map of a valley, a river between two hills, and it is estimated that it dates back to the 24th to 25th centuries BC. Another map dates back to the 12th to 14th centuries. BC discovered in Nefer (Nippur in Sumerian) and described the walls and buildings of the holy city. The Babylonian world map is the world’s oldest descriptive-non-literal representation map, dating back to 600 BC.^[1]

Pharaonic civilization[عدل]

Although Egyptian maps did not receive special attention in ancient civilizations, some of what remained of these maps, such as the Turin Papyrus, which dates back to 1300 BC, described the mountains east of the Nile River, which were a source for gold and silver exploration. This area is called the land of metal, and it is the area between the Nile River and the Red Sea, from south of Aswan to the land of Abyssinia and its inhabitants of Nubians and Beja.

Greek civilization[عدل]

Anaximander, Ptolemy, Hecataeus, and Eratosthenes were among the first Greeks to draw maps using mathematics as well as notes from explorers at the time. It is believed that Anaximander was the oldest Greek who drew a map (approximately 611-546 BC) of the world and believed that its shape resembled a cylinder suspended in space and that his world would be at the top of this cylinder. After 50 years, Hekatius of Miletus followed him by drawing another map, likening his world to a circular disk, with Greece as its center around which the ocean is located. Also, the sailor Silax was the first to add sailing instructions to the maps he drew, to become a basic landmark later for the producers of the maps. The greatest credit goes to Ptolemy, who suggested that the Earth could imagine its true shape if mathematical calculations and astronomy were used, and he reached the spherical hypothesis of the Earth. He also suggested the necessity of determining its center and making a system of coordinates, and this is what modern science has achieved in photographing the Earth and using the coordinates of length and width. Also, the Greek-Egyptian Eratosthenes was the first to reach an approximate drawing and calculation of the circumference of the globe in his experiments in Alexandria, and he reached an estimated value between 40,000 to 46,000 km.

Roman Empire[عدل]

UNESCO showed for the first time the Boettinger painting in 2007 and it dates back to the twelfth century, a map copied from another map dating back to the fifth century and showing roads during the Roman Empire.

China[عدل]

In 1989, seven Chinese maps were found in an excavation in the Chinese state of Qin. Before that, maps dating back to the fourth century BC were found showing river systems and symbolic names for some administrative areas. It is believed that they represent the oldest economic maps.

India[عدل]

The Indians were interested in maps in terms of sacredness and astrology, and they had identified the North Star as a reference in their maps.

The role of Arabs and Muslims[عدل]

Arabs and Muslims played a major role in the development of maps, as Al-Idrisi’s map is considered one of the most accurate maps drawn in the Middle Ages. Al-Ma’mun bin Harun al-Rashid (218 AH / 833 AD) spent a lot of money to allocate a mission to measure the circumference of the Earth and verify the correctness of Eratosthenes’ calculations. Arab scholars at the time used angles and mathematical calculations, and they took the polar bear as a reference for their calculations and drawings. They also used the Arab mile and ropes in their measurements instead of the Greek mile, and they reached an amazing result in calculating the Earth’s circumference. It was about 20,400 Arab miles, or about 40,000 kilometers, which is somewhat more accurate than the calculations of Eratosthenes. It is very close to the actual average circumference of the Earth, which is 40,041.47 km. Then Arab maps evolved to include regional maps. The mathematician Al-Marwazi is considered the first to introduce the spherical geometry system and map projection methods to convert between spherical coordinates and other systems. Al-Idrisi is also considered one of the most famous Arab scientists in developing and checking maps when he added rivers, hills, and lakes to the map and set borders for countries and used accurate drawing scales.

After the era of the European Renaissance, voyages of exploration began to the two continents, and the maps became at the height of their value and the utmost accuracy and detail. As for the current era, it is considered an essential complement, as the images taken from the air and outer space became more confirming of the previous maps, and the Greenwich Line was adopted as a fixed international standard for photographers in 1884.

Map types[عدل]

• Political mapsTo increase clarity, the patch of each country is colored in a distinctive color.
• Economic mapsThese maps are concerned with defining areas of wealth and economic activities, whether they are agricultural, industrial, commercial, transportation routes, or others.
• Terrain mapsIt is concerned with representing the Earth’s surface, including mountains, plains, plateaus, hills, valleys, and so on. In this type of map, it is used for coloring or shading to increase the clarity of the map and to distinguish the different landforms and their distribution.
• human mapsThese maps are concerned with the distribution of the population on the surface of the earth, indicating areas of population density, and so on.
• Climatic mapsIt is concerned with the prevailing climatic phenomena, such as the distribution of temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind directions, and atmospheric pressure.

geodetic (terrestrial) survey[عدل]

This type of cadastral work looks at mapping and representing the earth’s surface as being truly spherical, where the areas to be mapped are in this case a vast distance, and this leads to the emergence of a spherical effect of the earth when projecting maps on horizontal levels – and in this case the dimensions that are measured are Between the sites and some of them are not straight lines, but are arcs of great circles. Therefore, in this case, special methods of survey work are followed, and the scale of the drawing is usually very small, that is, it starts from 1: 1000 and so on until 1: 2,000,000.

flat area[عدل]

These cadastral maps of the flat area look at drawing and representing the Earth’s surface. In this case, the map consists of a completely spherical surface. In this case, the map is the horizontal projection of this (defined) surface. It is noted that this type of cadastral work is used in drawing small or medium distances and flat areas in A qualitative work of cadastral maps, for example terrain, at a scale of 1: 9,000,000

• Topographic space
• Detailed area (decadal)

First: Topographic. Maps of this type aim to show the features of nature, as it shows the topography of the earth’s surface, as well as seas, rivers, and transportation routes of all kinds. It also shows some buildings, existing real estate, railways, and the like. These maps are drawn on a medium scale, after compiling the maps. Cadets and details that include areas are converted into topographic maps and drawn on a scale

1 : 5000، 1 : 25000، 1 : 100.000

or more so that the size of the areas to be drawn.

• Map scale

1. It is known that the main purpose of measurement work in surveying is to reach the work of a cadastral method (horizontal projection) for an area or a piece of land indicating the existing facilities and other landmarks, and since it was obvious that it is not possible to raise any area of ​​nature and draw it on paper with its natural dimensions, so it was found Changing all these lengths by one appropriate ratio, and this ratio is called the scale.
2. The extent of accuracy required from the map, for example, if it is indicative or for a desert area, then a small scale is chosen, but if it is accurate, then a large scale is chosen, knowing that the large scale is what was a small denominator, so the scale of 1:100 is greater than the scale of 1:1000.
3. The dimensions of the drawing paper on which the map is to be drawn

It increases or decreases accordingly, and this ratio is expressed in maps in one of two ways, either by numerical expression in numbers, or by graphic expression in drawing and the types of cartographic scales.

1- numerical scale 2- schematic scale 3- relative scale.

map destination[عدل]

The north is a general reference used in many maps, but some maps are excluded from this, including:

• Three-dimensional maps, such as drawing the globe in a prominent spherical or circular shape.
• TO Maps.
• Maps of the North and South Poles.
• Inverted map (i.e. south on top instead of north)

Drawing scale[عدل]

The scale is an important element in drawing and working with a map. Maps are often quite miniature and here the ratio is used in the form 1:n (read 1 to n where n is another number greater than one on a small scale, less than one on an enlarged scale, equal to one for the same scale). Many of the maps used globally have a scale of 1:10,000, meaning that any scale drawn on the map is 10,000 times smaller than what is actually in nature. The accuracy of the drawing is inversely proportional to the scale of the same map area, meaning that scales of 1:10,000 contain more details than those drawn at a scale of 1:1,000,000.

See also[عدل]

• Drawing scale
• world map
• Map types
• maps drawing
• Drop Maps
• Cartography
• Topographical map
• Godunov map
• mental map

the reviewer[عدل]

external links[عدل]

• Maps
• Watch the world satellite map

• Geography portal

On Commons, photos and files about: map

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