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Mechanicsburg Area High School

Chapter

Cartography

Cartography is the usable visualization of geographic information. Cartography is one of the oldest sciences ever. People have always tried to map the area around them, which is proven by a finding in 1963 of a mural painting. This mural was more than 8,000 years old and it shows the Anatolian settlement Catal Huyuk and a volcano near by.
To get a general of structures in a certain area the idea of a birds-eye-view was selected as the best idea. Clay tablets were used in early times to draw on, later replaced by parchment. As time went on, big maps were needed for people to travel. There were many problems with these maps though, with such mistakes as wrong distances and forms. In the last millenium B.C. a world map had been made, but was in a disk shape due to popular belief.

Cartography

Meteorology

Did you know?
Catal Huyuk was the largest settlement in the world 8,000 years ago. Scince 1993 sceintist have been excavating it.

Eratosthenes was one of the first geographers who based their calculations on the globular form of the earth. Many other geographers created world maps that were deformed compared to reality. Scientists assume some were drawn deformed intentionally.
The Middle ages produced many maps, but the globe wasn't a globe until the end of the 15 century due the religous belief that the earth was a disk shape. In 1507, for the first time America was drawn on a map. A famous geographer at the time was Gerhard Mercator, he published many atleses.

As centuries went on maps got more and more accurate with distance and quality. In the 20 century areal ?photos made satallites became accepted. They are now the basis for modern globes and atlases