Exploring the History of Cartography

By loribbeauregard
  • 6700 BCE

    map of Catal Hyuk

  • 3000 BCE

    Babylonian clay tablets

  • 3000 BCE

    first map of the moon

  • 600 BCE

    map of Babylonian empire

  • 600 BCE

    Pythagoras determines earth is a sphere

  • 200 BCE

    Eratosthenes determines circumference of earth, establishes coordinate grid

  • 150 BCE

    Hipparchus creates early system of latitude based on the sun

  • 150

    Ptolemy creates world map with coordinates for 8000 locations

  • 476

    Roman Empire collapses, scientific cartography halts in Europe

  • 830

    Al-Khwarizmi produces world map partly based on Ptolemy's work

  • 1030

    Al-Biruni develops triangulation

  • 1375

    Abraham Cresques produces world map using portolan maps

  • 1569

    Gerardus Mercator publishes his first projection for navigation

  • sextant developed

  • John Harrison develops accurate clock for determining longitude at sea

  • International Meridian Conference chooses Greenwich as the prime meridian

  • high quality maps produced from aerial and satelite imagery and GSI/GPS developed

    late 1900s