stackyFACTSCalling a book of maps an 'atlas' has nothing to do with the maps themselves. In 1595, a famous cartographer simply slapped an illustration of the mythical Titan holding up the heavens on the front cover. The catchy title stuck, turning a random decorative doodle into a permanent noun.
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Early attempts to draw the globe were basically games of telephone. Cartographers would interview sailors who had spoken to other sailors, resulting in wild…
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Those terrifying sea serpents inked onto old nautical charts were not actual warnings of peril. Mapmakers simply hated leaving vast expanses of paper totally…
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Instead of drawing little cartoon mountains, professionals use contour lines to represent elevation on a totally flat piece of paper. When the concentric…
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Actual swashbucklers never buried their gold and they certainly did not draw convenient maps with a massive red letter on them. Robert Louis Stevenson…
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If you look at medieval charts, you will be holding them sideways. Because the sun rises in the east, early mapmakers considered it the most important…
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That awkward, angled mount holding every spinning globe in every library is not just a stylistic choice. It mimics the exact axial tilt of our planet relative…
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