Map

A map of the Earth made in 1656

Map Media

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  Map of the world published in Amsterdam in the 17th century

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  Tabula Rogerianacode: la is deprecated , one of the most advanced early world maps, by Muhammad al-Idrisi, 1154 (north is down)

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  Possibly the oldest surviving map was engraved on this mammoth tusk, dated to 25,000 BC, found in Pavlov, Czech Republic.

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  Celestial map by the cartographer Frederik de Wit, 17th century

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  The Hereford Mappa Mundi, Hereford Cathedral, England, c. 1300, a classic "T-O" map with Jerusalem at the center, east toward the top, Europe the bottom left and Africa on the right

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  A preliminary population cartogram of the EU-27 made with ScapeToad 1.1 using a cut-down and reprojected public domain world shapefile (projection: Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area) and January 2008 population data from Eurostat. This version includes Dutch barrier islands.

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  A four-colored map of the states of the United States (ignoring lakes and oceans)

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  Bathymetry of the ocean floor showing the continental shelves and oceanic plateaus (red), the mid-ocean ridges (yellow to green) and the abyssal plains (blue to purple)

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  Geological map of the Moon

A map is an image of an area, usually of the Earth or part of the Earth. A map is different from an aerial photograph because it includes interpretation. Many maps are called "charts" such as star charts and nautical charts. Some maps are of distant worlds. Before the late 20th century almost all maps were on paper. Today, many maps are digital, and can be seen on smartphones and computers. However, physical items such as paper maps, charts, or drawings are still used.

The word "map" can also be used to talk about or show relationships between ideas, people, events, data, and many other subjects. This is why web developers call a list of web pages on a web site a site map.

A Modern Topographic map of a town (Marburg) in a valley. Map symbols: Green Colour is forest in this map, a blue line is a river. Meaning of a ▲ Triangle: Summit of a mountain or hill with its Elevation in m (meter) and the name of the mountain

Many maps today are made using GIS computer systems. These are database systems that are organized by location instead of named records. People who make maps are cartographers.

If a map is on a piece of paper or a computer screen, it has to be projected. This is because the Earth is round and paper and screens are flat. There are a lot of ways that use mathematics to make map projections. The only kind of map of the Earth that is not projected is one drawn on a sphere. This is called a globe.