Ptolemy’s book also provided a written description of how to draw world maps, using a grid of intersecting lines known as a graticule. He also invented two map projections. Ironically ...

Although Ptolemy’s calculations were inaccurate—leading to distortions in distances—he was the first to use mathematics in cartography. Certain aspects of his world map, like his successful ...

Columbus carried a map influenced by the ancient Roman’s work. But Ptolemy thought the world was 30 percent smaller than it actually is; worse, the mapmaker was using Arabian miles, which were ...

As Jerry Brotton writes in A History of the World in 12 Maps, Claudius Ptolemy’s remarkably comprehensive Geography — completed around 150 A.D. — “would come to define mapmaking for the next two ...

Egyptian scholar Claudius Ptolemy—known as the “inventor ... (Here’s why your mental map of the world is (probably) wrong.) Helen Sunderland-Cohen, who manages the Oculi Mundi collection ...

The ancient Greek astronomer and geographer Ptolemy of Alexandria drew a map of the world in the 2nd century, which shows the stone fort as one of only five Irish sites to be noted. The Grianan ...

Columbus carried a map influenced by the ancient Roman’s work. But Ptolemy thought the world was 30 percent smaller than it actually is; worse, the mapmaker was using Arabian miles, which were ...