World Map

A world map is a map of the surface of the Earth, which may be made using any of a number of different map projections. A map projection is any method of representing the surface of a sphere or other three-dimensional body on a plane.

World maps form a distinctive category of maps due to the problem of projection. Maps by necessity distort the presentation of the earth's surface. Distortions reach extremes in a world map. The many ways of projecting the earth reflect diverse technical and æsthetic goals for world maps.

World maps are also distinct for the global knowledge required to construct them. A meaningful map of the world could not be constructed before the European Renaissance because less than half of the earth's coastlines, let alone its interior regions, were known to any culture. New knowledge of the earth's surface has been accumulating ever since and continues to this day.

Maps of the world generally focus either on 'political' features or on 'physical' features. Political maps emphasize territorial boundaries and human settlement. Physical maps show geographic features such as mountains, soil type or land use. Geological maps show not only the surface, but characteristics of the underlying rock, fault lines, and subsurface structures.

Read more about World Map:  Projections, Thematic, Historical

Famous quotes containing the words world and/or map:

    To see a world in a grain of sand
    And a heaven in a wild flower,
    Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
    And eternity in an hour.
    William Blake (1757–1827)

    Unless, governor, teacher inspector, visitor,
    This map becomes their window and these windows
    That open on their lives like crouching tombs
    Break, O break open,
    Stephen Spender (1909–1995)