A map is a simplified depiction of a space, a navigational aid which highlights relations between objects within that space. Most usually a map is a two-dimensional, geometrically accurate representation of a three-dimensional space. The science and art of map-making is cartography; see that page for further discussion of the history of maps and map-making.
Map-making dates back to the Stone Age and appears to predate written language by several millennia. One of the oldest surviving maps is painted on a wall of the Catal Huyuk settlement in south-central Anatolia (now Turkey); it dates from about 6200 BC.
While we tend to think of maps today as products of a rationalistic, scientific world-view, maps also have a mythic quality. Pre-modern maps, and mapping traditions outside the Western tradition, often merge geography with non-scientific cosmography, showing the relationship of the viewer to the universe. Medieval "T-O" maps, for example, show Jerusalem at the centre of the world, and in some cases related the "body" of the Earth to the body of Christ. By contrast, navigational (or "Portolan") charts of the Mediterranean from the same period are remarkably accurate. Even today, maps can be powerful rhetorical tools beyond their purely practical value, and this has been the source of much fruitful map criticism over the last twenty years, notably in the works of J.B. Harley, Mark Monmonier, and Denis Wood.
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Backpacking Across USA and Canada - Image galleries of interesting sites in the USA and Canada.
Meta Description: [ Backpacking travel in the USA and Canada ]
Browse-USA.com - Photographs from locations in Canada and the United States.
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TrekEarth - North America - Extensive galleries of photos taken from many sites in North America. Allows photographers to display their work and encourages people to critique each other's work.
United States and Canada Image Gallery - Image Gallery with various pictures from many places in the United States of America and Canada. More than 900 images from 35 different states and provinces available.
Virtual Guidebooks - Over 2600 virtual reality panoramas of Alaska, Canada, the western US, and Hawaii.
Meta Description: [ Don Bain's Virtual Guidebooks - Immersive imagery takes you there. Almost 5000 of my virtual reality panoramas of Alaska, Canada, the western US, and Hawaii. ]
| Bangnanan Floating Cafe and Sa Baybayon Pier Restaurant...with Map, Mactan | |
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