What is shown on the map - the routes of the most important journeys. I was there! Five travel mapping services. Contour maps for history
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Key dates.Traveler's name.His contribution to the development of geographical knowledge about the territory of Russia.
1.1620-1623 (way to the East) - to Chukotka and Kamchatka.Panteley Demidovich Penda.Discoverer of the Lena River. Penda climbed the Yenisei from Turukhanskado to the Lower Tunguska, then walked for three years to its upper reaches. He reached the Chechuysky portage, crossed the portage, sailed down the Lena River to the city of Yakutsk, to the mouth of the Kulenga, then through the Buryat steppe to the Angara, where, having boarded a ship, he arrived in Turukhansk through Yeniseisk.
2.1639-1640 Ivan Moskvitin.He was the first European to reach the Sea of Okhotsk. He was the first to visit Sakhalin. The coast of the Sea of Okhotsk for 1300 km, Udskaya Bay, Sakhalin Bay, Amur Estuary, the mouth of the Amur and Sakhalin Island was discovered and surveyed.
3.1628-1655Pyotr Beketov.Voivode, explorer of Siberia. The founder of a number of Siberian cities, such as Yakutsk, Chita, Nerchinsk. In 1628-1629 he took part in campaigns along the Angara. I walked a lot along the tributaries of the Lena. He founded several sovereign forts on the Yenisei, Lena and Transbaikalia.
4.1641-1652 Mikhail Vasilievich Stadukhin.Russian explorerresearcher North Eastern Siberia, one of the first to reach the Kolyma, Anadyr, Penzhina and Gizhiga rivers and the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk. He was the first to cross the Oymyakon Plateau.At the beginning of the summer of 1643, Stadukhin descended the Indigirkek Sea and headed east. In July 1643 he opened the mouth of the Kolyma and going up the river to the middle reaches, he discovered the Kolyma Lowland.
5.1630-1635 Vasily Ermolaevich Bugor.In 1630-1635 Vasily Bugor discovered new lands in Siberia and the Far East, identified a significant part of the Lena basin, traced its entire course (4400 km), as well as a number of tributaries.
6.1633-1634 Ivan Rebrov.In 1633-1634 explorers led by Ivan Rebrovwent along the Lena River to the Arctic Ocean. Expedition Rebrova was the first to descend to the mouth of the Lena, opening Olenyoksky Baywith the Olenok River (1634)
7.1643-1646 Vasily Poyarkov.Russian explorer, Cossack. Discoverer of the Middle and Lower Amur. In 1643-1646 he led a detachment that was the first Russian to penetrate the Amur River basin, discover the Zeya River, and the Zeya Plain. He collected valuable information about the nature and population of the Amur region.
8.1649-1653 Erofey Khabarov.B1649-53 made a trip along the Amur from where the Urka River flows into it to the very lower reaches. As a result of his expedition, the Amur indigenous population accepted Russian citizenship. He often acted by force, which left him with a bad reputation among the indigenous population.
9.1648-1649 Semyon Dezhnev.Cossack ataman, explorer, traveler, sailor, explorer of Northern and Eastern Siberia. Participated in the discovery of Kolyma as part of Stadukhin’s detachment. From Kolyma, on kochakhs, he walked along the Arctic Ocean along the northern coast of Chukotka. 80 years before Vitus Bering, the first European in 1648 passed the (Bering) Strait separating Chukotka and Alaska.
10.1648Popov Fedot Alekseevich.Russian trader, organizer and expedition participant1648, which opened the strait (Bering Strait) between Asia and North America , from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific.
11.
1696-1697 Vladimir Atlasov.Experienced polar explorer. ABOUT organized an expedition to explore Kamchatka at the beginning of 1697. Atlasov was not the discoverer of Kamchatka, but he was the first Russian to walk the entire peninsula from north to south and west to east. He drew up a detailed map of his journey. His report contained detailed information about the climate, flora and fauna. For the annexation of Kamchatka to Russia, Vladimir Atlasov, by government decision, was appointed clerk there.
Routes important travels GREAT GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES, a conventional term adopted mainly in historical literature, denoting the largest geographical discoveries of European travelers in the 15th to mid-17th centuries. In foreign literature, the period of the Great Geographical Discoveries is usually limited to the mid-15th to mid-16th centuries. Great geographical discoveries
The caravel is a symbol of the Great Geographical Discoveries. Great geographical discoveries became possible thanks to the successes of European science and technology. By the 15th century, sailing ships (caravels) that were reliable enough for ocean navigation were created, Great geographical discoveries
Walrus Tusk New trade routes also forced the search for Turkish conquests, which blocked traditional merchant ties with the East through the Mediterranean Sea. In overseas lands, Europeans hoped to find wealth: precious stones and metals, exotic goods and spices, ivory and walrus tusks. Great geographical discoveries
Coat of arms of Portugal The Portuguese were the first to launch systematic expeditions in the Atlantic Ocean. Portugal's activity at sea was predetermined by its geographical position in the far west of Europe and the historical conditions that developed after the end of the Portuguese Reconquista. Great geographical discoveries
Henry (Enrique) the Navigator Traditionally, Portugal's successes at sea are associated with the name of Prince Henry the Navigator (). He was not only an organizer of sea expeditions, but also seriously engaged in the development of open lands.
Azores In 1416, the Portuguese sailor G. Velho, following south along Africa, discovered the Canary Islands; in 1419, the Portuguese nobles Zarco and Vaz Teixeira discovered the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo; in 1431, V. Cabral, the Azores. Great geographical discoveries
Diogo Can in the Congo During the 15th century, Portuguese caravels explored the sea route along the western coast of Africa, reaching increasingly southern latitudes. In the years Diogo Can (Cao) crossed the equator, opened the mouth of the Congo River and walked along the coast of Africa to Cape Cross. Kahn discovered the Namibian deserts, thereby refuting the legend that had existed since the time of Ptolemy about the impassability of the tropics. Great geographical discoveries
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, portrait by an unknown artist of the 16th century. In 1492, after the capture of Granada and the completion of the reconquista, the Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella accepted the project of the Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus () to reach the shores of India, sailing to the west.
Coin 1 colon with the profile of Columbus The Columbus project had many opponents, but it received the support of scientists at the University of Salamansa, the most famous in Spain, and, no less significantly, among the business people of Seville.
Christopher Columbus (g.g.) From the Canary Islands, Columbus headed west. On October 12, 1492, after a month of sailing in the open ocean, the fleet approached a small island from the group of Bahamas, then named San Salvador.
Second Expedition Subsequently, Columbus made three more voyages to America in 2010, during which part of the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Trinidad, etc. were discovered; part of the Atlantic coast of Central and South America was surveyed.
Columbus with an anchor and his noble coat of arms For his great discoveries, Columbus was granted a noble coat of arms by the Spanish monarch, on which “the castle of Castile and the lion of Leon were adjacent to images of the islands he discovered, as well as anchors symbols of the admiral’s title.” Columbus's personal coat of arms
Vasco da Gama Returning to Portugal in September 1499, Vasco da Gama was greeted with great honor, received a large monetary reward and the title "Admiral of the Indian Ocean", as well as the title of Don and the cities of Sines and Vila Nova de Milfontes as his fief. In 1519 he received the title of Count of Vidigueira.
PORTRAIT OF VASCO DA GAMA Later he was in India twice more. Died in Cochin (India) on December 24. The ashes were transported to Portugal and buried in the small church of Quinta do Carmo in Alentejo. In 1880, the ashes were transferred to the Jeronimite Monastery in Lisbon.
John Cabot In Spain and Portugal, marine expeditions were equipped every year, which made overseas voyages and discovered new lands. Other European countries also became interested in overseas countries. Over the years, England equipped expeditions led by the Italian navigator John Cabot, who reached the shores of North America near the island of Newfoundland. Great geographical discoveries
Pedro Alvares Cabral In 1500, the Portuguese squadron under the command of Pedro Cabral, heading to India, was greatly diverted by the equatorial current and reached Brazil, which Cabral mistook for an island. Then he continued his voyage, circumnavigated Africa and proceeded through the Mozambique Channel to India. Like previous travelers, Cabral considered the land he discovered in the west to be part of Asia. Great geographical discoveries
Alonso de Ojeda In an 18th-century engraving. The travels of the navigator Amerigo Vespucci were important for understanding the essence of the discovery of Christopher Columbus. Over the years, he made four trips to the shores of America, first as part of a Spanish expedition led by Alonso Ojeda, and then under the Portuguese flag. Great geographical discoveries
Amerigo Vespucci Having compared the data received, and Spanish and Portuguese navigators discovered the entire northern coast of South America and its eastern coast up to 25° south latitude, Vespucci came to the conclusion that the discovered lands were not Asia, but a new continent, and proposed calling it the “New World.” "
John Cabot's explorations in North America were continued by his son Sebastian Cabot. During his years leading English expeditions, he tried to find the so-called Northwest Passage to India and managed to reach Hudson Bay. Having failed to find a short route to India, England showed little interest in the open lands overseas. Hudson Bay Great geographical discoveries
The difference between America and Asia was finally confirmed by Ferdinand Magellan, who carried out the first circumnavigation of the world (), which became practical evidence of the sphericity of the Earth. Fernand Magellan
A ship from Magellan's fleet. Image 1523 An expedition led by Magellan explored the southeastern part of South America, discovered the strait between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans (the Strait of Magellan) and sailed through the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. Great geographical discoveries
Cordova, Calahorra Tower In the years, the Spanish conquistadors J. Ponce de Leon, F. Cordova, J. Grijalva discovered the entire eastern coast of South and Central America, the Gulf Coast, and the Florida Peninsula. Great geographical discoveries
Map of the hike. Expedition to Mexico Great geographical discoveries
Map of California in the 17th century. The territory is depicted as an island. The search for gold, the mythical country of Eldorado, led the conquistadors far into the interior of the American continent. In the years, Sebastian Cabot, who switched to Spanish service, explored the lower reaches of the Parana River and discovered the lower reaches of the Paraguay River.
Francisco Orellana sailed the Amazon from the Andes to the mouth in 1542. By 1552, the Spaniards had explored the entire Pacific coast of South America, discovered the largest rivers of the continent (Amazon, Orinoco, Parana, Paraguay), and explored the Andes from 10° north latitude to 40° south latitude. Francisco de Orellana, depicted by a modern artist.
HERNANDO DE SOTO In the second quarter of the 16th century, French navigators also achieved significant success. J. Verrazano (1524) and J. Cartier () discovered the eastern coast of North America and the St. Lawrence River. In the years, the Spaniards E. Soto and F. Coronado traveled to the Southern Appalachians and the Southern Rocky Mountains, to the basins of the Colorado and Mississippi rivers.
Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnev, who discovered the strait between the Asian continent and America in 1617 centuries. Russian explorers explored the northern coasts of the Ob, Yenisei and Lena and mapped the contours of the northern coast of Asia. In 1642, Yakutsk was founded, which became the base for expeditions to the Arctic Ocean. Great geographical discoveries
Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnev, who discovered the strait between the Asian continent and America Great geographical discoveries In 1648, Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev (ca) left Kolyma and walked around the Chukotka peninsula, proving that the Asian continent is separated from America by a strait. The outlines were refined and plotted on maps northeast coast of Asia (1667, “Drawing of the Siberian Land”).
Cape Dezhnev But Dezhnev's report on the discovery of the strait lay in the Yakut archive for 80 years and was published only in 1758. In the 18th century. The strait discovered by Dezhnev was named after the Danish navigator in the Russian service, Vitus Bering, who in 1728 opened the strait for the second time. In 1898, in memory of Dezhnev, a cape at the northeastern tip of Asia was named after him. Great geographical discoveries
Henry Hudson made four expeditions to North America over the years. He passed through the strait between Labrador and Baffin Island into a vast gulf in the interior of North America. Later, both the strait and the bay were named after Hudson. A river in eastern North America is also named after him, at the mouth of which the city of New York later arose. Hudson's fate ended tragically; in the spring of 1611, the mutinous crew of his ship landed him and his teenage son in a boat in the middle of the ocean, where they went missing. HENRY HUDSON
John Davis spent three voyages in the waters of the North Atlantic, discovered the strait between Greenland and America (Davis Strait), and explored the coast of the Labrador Peninsula. John Davis Great geographical discoveries
Portrait of William Baffin by Hendrik van der Borcht William Baffin sailed in Arctic waters over the years: he made expeditions to the shores of Spitsbergen, explored Hudson Bay and the sea that was later named after him, discovered a number of islands in the Canadian Arctic archipelago, moving along the western coast of Greenland and reached 78° northern latitude. Samuel de Champlain In the first quarter of the 17th century. Europeans begin to explore North America. At first, France achieved the greatest success in this region. The first governor of Canada, Samuel Champlain. explored part of the eastern coast of North America, traveled deep into the continent: he discovered the Northern Appalachians, climbed up the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes and reached Lake Huron. By 1648, the French had discovered all five Great Lakes.
At the same time, at the beginning of the 17th century, European sailors penetrated the most remote part of the world from Europe, the areas located south of Southeast Asia. The Spaniard Luis Torres discovered in 1606 South coast New Guinea and passed through the strait separating Asia and Australia (Torres Strait). Torres Strait Map Great Geographical Discoveries
Abel Janszon Tasman In Dutchman Abel Tasman discovered Tasmania, New Zealand, Fiji, and part of the coast of Northern and Western Australia. Tasman identified Australia as a single landmass and named it New Holland. But Holland did not have enough resources to explore the new continent, and a century later it had to be rediscovered. Great geographical discoveries
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Attention! Slide previews are for informational purposes only and may not represent all the features of the presentation. If you are interested in this work, please download the full version.
Goals.
Minimum: mastery of basic map reading techniques by the end of 2nd grade: identification of land and water, heights, landforms, symbols.
Minimax: introduction to ways of depicting rivers, plains, mountains, islands and seas.
DURING THE CLASSES
1. Organizational moment
– Guys, check your readiness for the lesson, wish yourself and your friends good luck. Remember what rules you need to follow for friendly and effective work in the classroom. So, let's go!
2. Checking homework (work in pairs)
Slide 2
– Divide the proposed words into groups. If you find it difficult to complete this task, use the hint.
Each pair has these words, a piece of paper and glue. After completing the work, it is necessary to agree on the students' versions.
– Explain why you divided it this way. What words do you think are the most important?
Students. Map and globe - this is the topic of the last lesson. Under the map you need to label “rectangle” and “distortion”, and under the globe - “ball” and “model”.
Slide 3
- Right. What is a “map”?
Students. Image of the Earth on a plane.
- Real size?
Students. No.
– What is the name of the conventional unit that shows how many times the distance is reduced?
Students. Scale.
– Today we will continue talking about the map and the globe.
3. Updating knowledge and problem statement (work in groups)
Slide 4
– Our heroes Misha and Lena went to visit an artist they knew. In the workshop, he showed them many paintings, in which the guys saw landscapes of the places where the artist had visited.
“And Lena looked at the paintings and still couldn’t understand how the master managed to convey the appearance of nature three-dimensionally. Let's help Lena by answering her questions.
Slide 5
Students. The first picture shows a circle, and the second picture shows a ball.
- How did you guess?
Students. Volume is added to the ball using color and shadow. Where it is lighter there is a highlight, and where it is darker you can see a gray shadow. Therefore, we understand that in front of us is a convex object.
Slide 6
– Now look at these squares. Don't they seem strange to you?
Students. When we look at them, the darker square appears to be closer. Plus it looks bigger.
- Right. Let's combine them (left click) and make sure that they are actually the same size. Why did this happen?
Students. The color and thickness of the outline of the figures helped.
– What conclusion can be drawn? What can you convey with color?
Students. Volume. Brighter objects appear closer than pale ones.
4. Joint discovery of knowledge (work in groups)
Slide 7
– Look at the map of the hemispheres. Guess (click with the left mouse button) what is indicated on the map and in what color.
Group assumptions.
– Let's check our assumptions using the text (p. 90). What do the colors on the map mean?
Students. Shades of green, yellow and brown - plains and mountains. Shades of blue – sea and river.
– Remember this (click left mouse button)!
Slide 8
– Look at the photograph of our planet from space and the model of our Earth in my hands. What is more on Earth: water or land?
- How did you guess?
- Let's summarize our research. What does each color represent? Why do we understand what height is shown? How is the transition from one height to another shown?
Students. You can find different colors on the map. All colors except blue indicate land (green - plains, yellow - sands, brown - mountains). Each color is limited by a line. These are the boundaries between one height and another. In addition to height, depth is also indicated on the maps. In water, the darker the color, the deeper.
Slide 9
– Look carefully at this map and answer the questions:
- What geographical features are depicted on it?
- Where is the highest place?
- What is the best place to swim?
- Where will deep sea fish be caught?
- What will you need while traveling along a given route (left click)?
- What dangers might you encounter in this area? How to deal with them?
– What conclusion can be drawn?
Students. With the help of a map we can learn even more than by looking at a drawing or photograph. The map gives a lot of important information!
5. Independent application of knowledge, secondary consolidation
Exercises in the textbook on pp. 92-93 (frontal).
Slide 10
– Select a photo from Slide showing any geographical feature and try to draw a map of this area.
Students work in pairs, check each other, find and correct mistakes.
– What colors did you use? What do they mean?
Answers.
Slide 11
– Sometimes it seems to us that the most beautiful views can be seen on Earth and transferred to the artist’s paintings. And only sometimes we can imagine what our planet looks like from space. Let's visit the artist's studio again, but this time the artist will be Nature herself.
Slides 12-14
– And now you will see space images of different geographical objects. Compare them with the image on the map and a photograph taken on site. Name each object and the primary color it is shown on the map.
– How does a map differ from a photograph of the Earth from space?
Students. On the map, many objects are indicated using special symbols, but in the photograph they may be indistinguishable.
– Why aren’t trees, grass, sand shown on the map?
Students. At the scale of the map, these objects can hardly be distinguished.
– After seeing these pictures, did you want to make a model of the area that the spacecraft saw? Meet as a group and if you are interested, you can make it as a group. After a few lessons, these layouts will be useful to us for conducting experiments.
Distribution of tasks into groups.
– A competition is announced for the best layout sketch. At best, you can make a large model with the whole class, so that it contains mountains, rivers, plains, and ice.
6. Result of the work
Students. Know what is indicated on it, travel.
Slide 15 (students independently read what is written on the Slide, and then work with individual travel maps).
- Be careful! Remember: the map provides a lot of important information!
Students. At first, Afanasy Nikitin sailed along the river on a ship. It's called Volga. Nikitin's path ran along the plain. It is called Eastern European. Then the traveler sailed on a ship across the sea, which in our time is called the Caspian. After that he crossed the mountains. They are called the Iranian Plateau. Then Afanasy Nikitin again boarded the ship and sailed across the Arabian Sea to India.
- Well done! What did you find interesting in the lesson?
– What was difficult? Where is knowledge useful? Evaluate your work in class.
7. Homework– “Keen Eye”
Slide 16
– Look again at Afanasy Nikitin’s route and try to draw the landscapes of the area where his path lay.
- Thank you for the lesson!
Help for teachers.
Afanasy Nikitin is a Russian traveler, Tver merchant and writer. Traveled from Tver to Persia and India (1468-1474). On the way back I visited the African coast (Somalia), Muscat and Turkey. Nikitin’s travel notes “Walking across Three Seas” are a valuable literary and historical monument. Marked by the versatility of his observations, as well as his religious tolerance, unusual for the Middle Ages, combined with devotion to the Christian faith and his native land.
The year of birth of Afanasy Nikitin is unknown. He died in the spring of 1475.
Photos taken from sites:
http://www.dumka.ru/product425.html
http://nub1an.livejournal.com/
http://www.scanex.ru/ru/gallery/index07.html
http://www.hobitus.com/
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://uchkol.rbs.ru/
http://images.yandex.ru/
http://taina.aib.ru/biography/afanasij-nikitin.htm
http://www.deti.religiousbook.org.ua/big_foto/e7-8.html
It is impossible to determine when a person made the first map. It is only known that many millennia BC, man already knew the area around him well and knew how to depict it on sand or tree bark. These cartographic images served to indicate migration routes, hunting places, etc.
As the economy and cultural needs of people developed, their horizons expanded. Many more hundreds of years passed. People, in addition to hunting and fishing, began to engage in cattle breeding and agriculture. This new, higher level of culture was reflected in the drawings and plans. They become more detailed, more expressive, and more accurately convey the character of the area.
One of the oldest images of a hunting ground in the North Caucasus has survived to this day. It is engraved on silver approximately 3 thousand years BC. e., i.e. about 5 thousand years ago. The picture shows a lake and rivers flowing into it, flowing from a mountain range. Animals that lived in those days on the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains or in the valleys are also depicted.
This most valuable cultural monument of the ancient inhabitants of our country was found by scientists during excavations of one of the mounds on the bank of the river. Kuban near the city of Maykop.
Under the slave system in the ancient world, the compilation of geographical maps reached great development. The Greeks established the sphericity of the Earth and its dimensions, introduced cartographic projections, meridians and parallels into science.
One of the most famous scientists of the ancient world, geographer and astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, who lived in Alexandria (at the mouth of the Nile River) in the 2nd century, compiled a detailed map of the Earth, which no one had ever created before.
This map depicts three parts of the world - Europe, Asia and Libya (as Africa was then called), as well as the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean and other seas. The map already has a degree grid. Ptolemy introduced this grid to more correctly depict the spherical shape of the Earth on the map. The rivers, lakes, peninsulas of Europe and North Africa known at that time are shown quite accurately on Ptolemy’s map.
If you compare Ptolemy’s map with a modern one, it is easy to notice that areas located far from the Mediterranean Sea region, that is, known to Ptolemy only by rumor, received fantastic outlines.
What is especially striking is that Asia is not depicted in its entirety. Ptolemy did not know where it ended in the north and east. He also did not know about the existence of the Arctic and Pacific oceans. Africa continues on the map until South Pole and passes into some kind of land connecting to Asia in the east. Ptolemy did not know that Africa ends in the south and is washed by the ocean. He also did not know about the existence of independent continents - America, Antarctica and Australia. Ptolemy depicted the Indian Ocean as a closed sea, into which it was impossible to sail on ships from Europe. And yet in ancient world and in subsequent centuries, until the 15th century, no one compiled best card world than Ptolemy.
Ancient Egyptian map of gold mines, the so-called Turin papyrus. The map is a combination of a plan drawing and a profile one. This is a cartographic technique used until the 18th century. Mountains are shown in profile. The plan shows: a gold-bearing vein; a temple consisting of two halls and adjoining rooms; settlement of mine workers; ore washing basin.
The Romans made extensive use of maps for administrative and military purposes; they drew up road maps.
During the Middle Ages, the achievements of ancient science were forgotten for a long time. The Church entered into a fierce struggle with scientific ideas about the structure and origin of the world.
In schools, fables were taught about the creation of the world by God in six days, about the global flood, about heaven and hell. The idea that the Earth was spherical was considered “heretical” by churchmen and was strictly persecuted. The idea of the Earth took on a completely fantastic form. In the VI century. The Byzantine merchant - monk Cosmas Indicoplov depicted the Earth in the shape of a rectangle.
The main type of maps is becoming rough, far from reality and lacking a scientific basis, “monastery maps”. They indicate the decline of cartography in medieval Europe. During this period, many small closed states arose in Europe. With a subsistence economy, these feudal states did not need connections with the outside world.
By the end of the Middle Ages, trade and navigation began to develop in European cities, and art and science began to flourish.
In the XIII-XIV centuries. In Europe, a compass and marine navigation charts, the so-called portolans, appeared.
These maps depicted the coastline in detail and very accurately, while the interior parts of the continents remained empty or were filled with pictures from the life of the peoples inhabiting them.
The era of great geographical discoveries created the conditions for the rise of cartographic science: sailors needed a good, truthful geographical map. In the 16th century more appeared correct cards, built in new map projections.
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A person is always driven by curiosity. Thousands of years ago, discoverers, going further and further into unknown lands, created the first semblances of geographical maps, trying to put the relief they saw on sheets of papyrus or clay tablets.
Probably the oldest map found is from the Egyptian Museum in Turin, made on papyrus by order of Pharaoh Ramses IV in 1160 BC. e. This map was used by an expedition that, on the orders of the pharaoh, was looking for stone for construction. The map familiar to our eyes appeared in ancient Greece half a thousand years BC. Anaximander of Miletus is considered the first cartographer to create a map of the world known at that time.
The originals of his maps have not survived, but 50 years later they were restored and improved by another scientist from Miletus, Hecataeus. Scientists have recreated this map based on the descriptions of Hecataeus. It is easy to recognize the Mediterranean and Black Sea and nearby lands. But is it possible to determine distances from it? This requires a scale that was not yet available on ancient maps. For a unit of measurement of length, Hecataeus used “days of sailing” on the sea and “days of marching” on dry land, which, of course, did not add accuracy to the maps.
Ancient geographical maps also had other significant shortcomings. They distorted the image, because a spherical surface cannot be turned onto a plane without distortion. Try to carefully remove the orange peel and press it to the table surface: you won’t be able to do this without tearing. In addition, they did not have a degree grid of parallels and meridians, without which it is impossible to accurately determine the location of the object. Meridians first appeared on the map of Eratosthenes in the 3rd century BC. e., however, they were carried out through different distances. It was not for nothing that Eratosthenes was called the “Father of Geography” as a mathematician among geographers. The scientist not only measured the size of the Earth, but also used it to depict it on a map. cylindrical projection. In this projection there is less distortion because the image is transferred from the ball to the cylinder. Modern maps created in different projections - cylindrical, conical, azimuthal and others.
The most perfect maps of the ancient era are considered to be the geographical maps of Ptolemy, who lived in the 2nd century AD. e. in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. Claudius Ptolemy entered the history of science thanks to two large works: the “Manual of Astronomy” in 13 books and the “Manual of Geography”, which consisted of 8 books. 27 maps were added to the Geography Manual, among them a detailed map of the world. No one created a better one either before Ptolemy or 12 centuries after him! This map already had a degree grid. To create it, Ptolemy determined the geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude) of almost four hundred objects. The scientist determined latitude (distance from the equator in degrees) by the altitude of the Sun at noon using a gnomon, longitude (degree distance from the prime meridian) by the difference in the time of observations of the lunar eclipse from different points.
In medieval Europe, the works of ancient scientists were forgotten, but they were preserved in the Arab world. There, Ptolemy's maps were published in the 15th century and reprinted almost 50 more times! Perhaps it was these maps that helped Columbus on his famous voyage. Ptolemy's authority grew so much that even collections of maps were called "Ptolemies" for a long time. It was only in the 16th century, after the publication of Gerardus Mercator’s Atlas of the World, on the cover of which Atlas was depicted holding the Earth, that collections of maps were called “atlases.”
Geographic maps were also created in Ancient China. Interestingly, the first written mention of geographical map not related to geography. In the 3rd century BC. e. The Chinese throne was occupied by the Qin dynasty. A rival in the struggle for power, Crown Prince Dan sent an assassin to the ruler of the dynasty with a map of his lands drawn on silk fabric. The mercenary hid a dagger in a bundle of silk. History tells that the assassination attempt failed.
During the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, images of America and Australia, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans appeared on world maps. Errors on maps often resulted in tragedy for sailors. Having explored the shores of Alaska, the large Kamchatka expedition of Vitus Bering in the 18th century did not have time to return to Kamchatka by the beginning of the autumn storms. The dreamer Bering spent three weeks of precious time searching for the mapped but non-existent Land of Gama. His sailing ship "St. Peter", broken, with sailors dying of scurvy, landed on a deserted island, where the famous Commander rested forever. “My blood boils every time,” wrote one of Bering’s assistants, “when I remember the shameless deception caused by an error on the map.”
Today, cartography is completely transferred to digital format. For creating detailed maps They use not only ground-based geodetic instruments - theodolite, level, but also airborne laser scanning, satellite navigation, digital aerial photography.
Illustration: depositphotos.com | Kuzmafoto
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