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Maps function as visualization tools for spatial data. Spatial data is acquired from measurement and can be stored in a database, from which it can be extracted for a variety of purposes. Current trends in this field are moving away from analog methods of mapmaking and toward the creation of increasingly dynamic, interactive maps that can be manipulated digitally. The cartographic process rests on the premise that there is an objective reality and that we can make reliable representations of that reality by adding levels of abstraction.
The oldest known map dates from the 5th millennium BCE. The oldest maps emphasized topological relationships such as connectedness, adjacency and containment.
A major development in mapmaking occurred with the advent of geometry which was first used in Babylonia around the 23rd century BCE. An engraved map of the holy city of NippurThe city of Nippur ( Sumerian Nibru Akkadian Nibbur was one of the most ancient of all the Babylonian cities of which we have any knowledge, the special seat of the worship of the Sumerian god, Enlil, ruler of the cosmos subject to An alone. Indeed, in Su, from the Kassite period ( 14th– 12th centuries BCE) of Babylonian history, was found at Nippur [1]. The EgyptAncient Egypt (also see Ancient Egyptian) was the civilization of the Nile Valley between about 3000 BC and the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. As a civilization based on irrigation it is the quintessential example of an hydraulic empiians later used geometry to survey land and to resurvey it after the periodic flooding of the NileThe Nile ( Arabic: an-nil , in Africa, is one of the two longest rivers on Earth. Whether the Nile is longer than South America's Amazon still remains the subject of much debate. This is, for the most part, due to two reasons: first, the lengths of rivers obscured the property borders.
The ancient Greeks added a great deal to the art and science of cartography. StraboStrabo ("squinty") was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called " Pompeius Strabo. A native of Sicily so clear sighted that he could see things at great distance as if they were nearby (c. 63 BCE–c 21 CE) is credited as the father of geography because he wrote "Geographia" in which he documented and criticized the works of others (most of whom would not be known today had Strabo not mentioned them). Thales of Miletus thought that the earth was disk and was supported by water in around 600 BCE. Anaximander of Miletus theorized that the earth was cylindrical also about the same time. In 288 BCE Aristarchus of Samos was the first to say that the sun was the center of universe (see heliocentric theory). And in approximately 250 BCE Eratosthenes of Cyrene estimated the circumference of the earth to within 15% of the modern-day accepted value.
Pythagoras of Ionia, who was the founder of a mathematical cult that developed many number-based superstitions that later became the basis of mathematics, was the first notable person to say that the earth was a sphere. Aristotle later provided arguments in support of this idea. Those arguments can be summarized as follows:The Greeks also developed the science of map projections, which are methods of representing the curved surface of the earth on a plane. Eratosthenes, Anaximander, and Hipparchus are credited with developing the concept of longitude and latitude, and Eratosthenes seems to have developed the equirectangular map projection around 200 BCE. Claudius Ptolemy developed map projections as well, including the equidistant conic around 150 BCE.
During the middle ages of Europe intellectual thought tended toward religion. While scientific cartography advanced in some ways, such as Roger Bacon's investigations of map projections and the appearance of portolano and then portolan charts for plying the European trade routes, there was little impetus for systematic study of cartography. Most world 'maps' of the period were Christian cosmological diagrams that were not intended to be rigorous geographical representations. They were typically rectangular or circular and followed the style of the so-called " T and O map ." This world map represented the land as disk-shaped and surrounded by Ocean. The land on the map was divided into three parts by a T shape in which Asia occupied the top of the T area, Europe the bottom left and Africa the bottom right. Dogma also dictated that one son of Abraham colonized each division. The Chinese during this time were using a rectangular coordinate system which was far more accurate and useful.
The discovery of the West by Europeans and the subsequent effort to control and divide up those lands necessitated the invention of scientific mapping methods. The trend of globalism that was started with the Age of Exploration would continue during the Renaissance. This would, in turn, eventually lead to the Enlightenment in which probability theory, a concern for accuracy, and a desire to classify the world would further develop scientific mapmaking. The concept of distribution, in which systems are characterized and analyzed, and ecological thinking, in which the interrelationships between objects are studied and predictions are made about future behavior, would revolutionize cartography in later centuries.