Portal:Maps
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A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes.
Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although most commonly used to depict geography, maps may represent any space, real or fictional, without regard to context or scale, such as in brain mapping, DNA mapping, or computer network topology mapping. The space being mapped may be two dimensional, such as the surface of the Earth, three dimensional, such as the interior of the Earth, or even more abstract spaces of any dimension, such as arise in modeling phenomena having many independent variables.
Although the earliest maps known are of the heavens, geographic maps of territory have a very long tradition and exist from ancient times. The word "map" comes from the medieval Latin: Mappa mundi, wherein mappa meant 'napkin' or 'cloth' and mundi 'of the world'. Thus, "map" became a shortened term referring to a two-dimensional representation of the surface of the world. (Full article...)
Cartography (/kɑːrˈtɒɡrəfi/; from Ancient Greek: χάρτης chartēs, 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and γράφειν graphein, 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively. (Full article...)
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![](http://178.128.105.246/content-http-upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/T_and_O_map_Guntherus_Ziner_1472.jpg/220px-T_and_O_map_Guntherus_Ziner_1472.jpg)
A T and O map or O–T or T–O map (orbis terrarum, orb or circle of the lands; with the letter T inside an O), also known as an Isidoran map, is a type of early world map that represents world geography as first described by the 7th-century scholar Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) in his De Natura Rerum and later his Etymologiae (c. 625)
A later manuscript added the names of Noah's sons (Sem, Iafeth and Cham) for each of the three continents (see Biblical terminology for race). A later variation with more detail is the Beatus map drawn by Beatus of Liébana, an 8th-century Spanish monk, in the prologue to his Commentary on the Apocalypse. (Full article...)General images -
Selected quote
“ | Map me no maps. | ” |
— Henry Fielding, Rape upon Rape, 1730 |
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Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he has also become known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and palaeontology. Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of artists matched only by that of his younger contemporary Michelangelo.
Born out of wedlock to a successful notary and a lower-class woman in, or near, Vinci, he was educated in Florence by the Italian painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. He began his career in the city, but then spent much time in the service of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Later, he worked in Florence and Milan again, as well as briefly in Rome, all while attracting a large following of imitators and students. Upon the invitation of Francis I, he spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519. Since his death, there has not been a time where his achievements, diverse interests, personal life, and empirical thinking have failed to incite interest and admiration, making him a frequent namesake and subject in culture. (Full article...)Selected picture
![Arches National Park map](http://178.128.105.246/content-http-upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Arches_National_Park_Map.jpg/500px-Arches_National_Park_Map.jpg)
Did you know
- ... that the actress Lottie Williams was one of the cakewalk dancers depicted on the front cover of the sheet music for Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag"?
- ... that in 2007, Arthur Gray's £2 Kangaroo and Map stamp sold for a world record price for a single Australian stamp?
- ... that the 100 gecs tree was listed as a "place of worship" on Google Maps?
- ... that DeepStateMap.Live, an interactive map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, received up to 120,000 visitors in 30 minutes during the Battle of Izium in the 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive?
- ... that the Canadian League for Peace and Democracy organized a 10,000-person rally at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto to protest a 2,500-person fascist rally?
- ... that actress Agnes Mapes had to improvise a complex choreographed dance from basic poses for the 1907 play The Holy City?
Topics
Map - Atlas - Geography - Topography
Cartography: Cartographers - History of cartography - Ancient world maps - World maps - Compass rose - Generalization - Geographic coordinate system - Geovisualization - Relief depiction - Scale - Terra incognita - Planetary cartography
Map projection: Azimuthal equidistant - "Butterfly" - Dymaxion - Gall–Peters - General Perspective - Goode homolosine - Mercator - Mollweide - Orthographic - Peirce quincuncial - Robinson - Sinusoidal - Stereographic
Maps: Animated mapping - Cartogram - Choropleth map - Estate map - Geologic map - Linguistic map - Nautical chart - Pictorial map - Reversed map - Road atlas - Thematic map - Topographic map - Weather map - Web mapping - World map
Map examples
World
![Currency symbols of the world](http://178.128.105.246/content-http-upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Currency-Symbol_Regions_of_the_World_circa_2006.png/550px-Currency-Symbol_Regions_of_the_World_circa_2006.png)
Historical
![Celestial map from the 17th century](http://178.128.105.246/content-http-upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Planisph%C3%A6ri_c%C5%93leste.jpg/550px-Planisph%C3%A6ri_c%C5%93leste.jpg)
Thematic
![Spread of the Black Plague in Europe](http://178.128.105.246/content-http-upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/Bubonic_plague_map_2.png/300px-Bubonic_plague_map_2.png)
Geographic
![Geographic features of China](http://178.128.105.246/content-http-upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/ChinaGeography.png/300px-ChinaGeography.png)
Political
![The evolution of Australia's internal borders](http://178.128.105.246/content-http-upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Australia_states_evolution.gif/300px-Australia_states_evolution.gif)
Nautical
![Relief map of the Mediterranean Sea](http://178.128.105.246/content-http-upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Mediterranean_Relief.jpg/300px-Mediterranean_Relief.jpg)
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Things you can do
Here are some Geography related tasks you can do:
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Atlases and maps of the world at Wikimedia Commons
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