Maps have always been essential tools for making sense of the world around us. From hand-drawn sketches to today’s digital systems, they visualize space, plan movement and understand places. But the ...

In 1569, Flemish mapmaker Gerardus Mercator synthesized existing ideas in navigation and cartography to create a new type of world map. It has stood the test of time: Billions of people would ...

IN THE 1880s, Iraqi archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam found a small carved tablet with an image of Babylon at its center, surrounded by a vast salt sea. Historians consider this tablet, roughly 2,500 years ...

For much of its 233-year history, the Ordnance Survey has been synonymous with detailed maps of the British countryside, beloved by ramblers and orienteers. But the UK’s national mapping agency, which ...

The Mercator projection, a centuries-old map style from the age of sail, still prevails in the internet age. Here’s what the African Union wants to use instead ...