Our World Maps are Distorted

Did you know that the world maps we use are distorted? Watch this video.

Urbano Monte, Renaissance Map Maker

Urbano Monte (1544-1613) was an Italian nobleman who lived in Milan. He produced the map shown above. He copied many of the images from earlier map makers, but he also innovated. In a treatise he wrote for his followers, Monte apologized for his poor drawing skills.


When he was 41, Monte took up cartography and created this world map, replete with mythical creatures, including sea monsters, unicorns and centaurs. Three editions of this map survive today — one at Stanford and two in Italy.

An intensive examination of the Stanford map revealed that Monte was quite the imitator, copying mythical monsters from other world maps, Van Duzer said. For instance, Monte copied an odd-looking turtle bird, a sea monster and a scroll from a map published nearly 30 years earlier by the Italian Michele Tramezzino.

Monte implemented some unorthodox practices. Namely, he left instructions that the 60-page map be arranged like a giant poster and rotated around a pivot point as a 2D disc. Also, he drew the map from the perspective of a bird's-eye view of the North Pole. 

Read more here.

Related reading: Why the Maps You See Are Wrong; How Globes Were Made in the 1950s; A Brief History of Globe Making

The Topography of the Ocean Floor

Ever wonder what the bottom of the seas would look like without the water? Watch this video.

Iceland is separating at a rate of 1cm per year.


Related reading: Volcanic Eruptions and Climate

The World Map Without Distortions

The maps we have become accustomed to are based on a map first produced in the 1600s. These maps are not accurate in their representations of the comparative square miles of the different regions. For example, Europe is shown as being larger in size than South America. Yet Europe is 3.8 million square miles whereas South America is 6.9 Square miles.

Another example is a comparison of the land masses above and below the equator. The regions above the equator are shown as larger, yet the regions below the equator cover 38.6 square miles, whereas the regions above the equator cover only 18.9 square miles.

Watch this video to see what the map of the world should look like.

Related:  Why the Maps You See Are Wrong; Renaissance Mapmaker Was a Mastermind and a Copycat; How Globes Were Made in the 1950s; A Brief History of Globe Making