how to draw maps by hand

Sometimes called a legend, a map central is a table that explains what the symbols on a map mean. This helps the person reading the map sympathise where to find certain items. For example, a map of a mall may have symbols that reveal bathrooms, places to eat, elevators and invitee services areas. A map of a urban center may have symbols for roads, parks, tourist attractions and public transportation stations.

More on Symbols

While the person who creates the map can determine which symbols to use, there are some symbols that are universal. For example, a long blue line frequently indicates a river, while black lines correspond roads. A blackness dot represents a city, while a star is a upper-case letter city. Light-green spaces often represent parks or forests. Airplanes stand for airports, and a red cross is a hospital.

W lid Is a Map?

A map is a visual that represents a space. It can show a space equally small every bit i room or every bit large as the entire world. Information technology shows spatial relationships between its features, and it can show other information, such as climate, political boundaries, elevation, financial data and much more. Maps are created by cartographers.

W hat Is Cartography?

Cartography is the practice of designing maps. The exercise combines art, science and technique. Cartography, or mapmaking, has been in practise since ancient times.

T he Oldest Maps

The oldest map ever discovered was found in a cavern in Lascaux, France, in 2000. It depicts the stars in the night sky carved into the cave wall. Scientists believe it dates back over 16,500 years to the Magdalenian Era. Other aboriginal cultures, including the Greeks, Romans, and Chinese also used maps.

C hanges Through the Years

While almost modern maps are printed on newspaper, digital maps are becoming more popular. People can access these maps on computers, phones, tablets and fifty-fifty in automobile GPS systems. Fifty-fifty the manner maps are made has inverse over the years. The earliest cartographers used land surveying to create maps. Eventually, they began using aerial photography. Today, satellites are often used for cartography.

T ypes of Maps

While there are many different types of maps, most can be divided into two categories: full general purpose or thematic. General purpose maps are designed to show the exact locations of things, such as road maps, atlases, maps of buildings and wall maps.

Thematic maps are a scrap more complicated. They provide general ideas about an area based on a cardinal theme, such as the climate of a region, a state'south population, a country'southward economy or a city'south voting habits. Thematic maps may utilize color patches, dots, an isopleth or choropleth.

I nteresting Facts About Maps

While the northward is usually featured at the peak of maps, that hasn't always been the example. Muslims in one case made maps with south at the peak when Mecca was located south of their location. Many Europeans positioned e at the peak.

Some governments effectually the world practice map censorship. For example, Russia requires that maps show Crimea equally a role of Russia.

Bologna Ptolemy, the showtime printed atlas, sold for $3.12 one thousand thousand in 2007. The Library of Congress paid $x million for the Universalis Cosmographia map that dates back to 1507. It's believed this is the first map to use the name America.