Introduction Portolan charts represent one of the most fascinating and significant advancements in medieval navigation and cartography. Developed between the 13th and 16th centuries, these…
Mapping Climate Change: How Modern Maps Track Our Changing Planet In an era characterized by rapid environmental transformations, the importance of accurately tracking climate change…
Goode’s 1908 speech at the American Association of Geographers on the Evil Mercator In 1908, J. Paul Goode delivered a pivotal speech at the American…
Goode’s Homolosine Projection is a composite, equal-area map projection that minimizes distortions for global maps. The projection is named after John Paul Goode, an American…
The evolution of map coordinates has a rich history. It spans from Ptolemy’s ancient systems to modern GPS (Global Positioning System). This signifies a fascinating…
History of the Prime Meridian The Prime Meridian is the line of zero degrees longitude. It serves as the starting point for measuring time and…
Understanding the Longitude Problem The longitude problem posed a monumental challenge for navigators and mapmakers during the 17th and 18th centuries. Unlike latitude, which can…
One of the key challenges in cartography is representing the three-dimensional surface of the Earth on a two-dimensional plane. Since the Earth is spherical (or…
Ptolemy’s 1st projection, attributed to the Greco-Roman geographer Claudius Ptolemy, is a simple cylindrical map projection with straight, equally spaced meridians and non-equally spaced parallels.…
The Mercator projection was created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It is one of the most well-known map projections in history. Its design…