Get If8553 World Map Skills

Hear this out loud PauseThe ability to recognise and read map symbols. These can often be found on the map's key. Examples of symbols include a red triangle, which represents a Youth Hostel, and a black square with a cross on the top, which represents a place of worship. The ability to interpret a map's scale correctly.

Hear this out loud PauseA Babylonian clay tablet helped unlock an understanding for how our ancestors saw the world. Dating all the way back to the 6th century BCE, the Imago Mundi is the oldest known world map, and it offers a unique glimpse into ancient perspectives on earth and the heavens.

In ancient Greece, the mapmaker Anaximander is credited with making the first map of the known world in the sixth century B.C. Anaximander drew a map of the world as it was known at the time, based on the assumption that earth was shaped like a perfect cylinder.

Babylonian Imago Mundi (c. Imago Mundi Babylonian map, the oldest known world map, 6th century BC Babylonia. Now in the British Museum.

The first known map of the “world,” now located at the British Museum, is a cuneiform clay tablet from Mesopotamia, dated to about the 6th century bce and known as the Babylonian Map of the World.

Hear this out loud Pauseworld map, graphical representation, using projection, that depicts Earth's exterior on a flat surface. World maps usually show political features, such as country borders, and physical features. World maps can also be used to present data on average temperature, soil type, rainfall distribution, and much else.

More commonly known as the Babylonian Map of the World, the Imago Mundi is considered the oldest surviving world map. It is currently on display at the British Museum in London. It dates back to between 700 and 500 BC and was found in a town called Sippar in Iraq.