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6700 BCE
Early Wall Paining - Ankara, Turkey
Early wall painting of the settlement of Catal Hyuk, in Ankara, Turkey. It appears to be a plan of the settlement showing 80 buildings and a local mountain. -
3000 BCE
Babylonian Scratched Clay Tablet
Scratched clay tablets that would fit in the palm of a hand were believed to have been created between 3800 BCE and 2300 BCE. -
3000 BCE
First Map of the Moon
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600 BCE
Preposition That Earth is a Sphere
Pythagoras made the preposition that the earth is a sphere and Aristotle settled the discussion for all time by 350 BCE. Eratosthenes extended the Greek tradition in the second century with the first highly accurate measurement of the circumference of the earth, developing the first attempt at what would eventually develop into latitude and longitude. -
600 BCE
Map of Babylonian Empire
When the Babylonians developed an empire in 600 BCE, their local maps evolved into maps of the Babylonian empire, using the same technology, but the purpose of the maps had expanded. -
200 BCE
Eratosthenes determines Circumference of Earth - Establishes Coordinate Grid
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150 BCE
Hipparchus Creates Early System of Latitude Based on the Sun
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150
Ptolemy Creates World Map with Coordinates for 8,000 Locations
Continued the Greek Tradition of cartography with an 8-volume set of books, including the written coordinates for 8,000 places. None of Ptolemy's maps survive, but there have been numerous reconstructions based on the coordinates and descriptions he provided. -
476
Roman Empire Collapses, Scientific Cartography Halts in Europe
Almost all progress in scientific cartography stopped in that part of the world until the fourteenth century. During that time interval, a religious view of the world dominated this part of the world, and its maps showed the world as described in the Bible. -
Jan 1, 830
Al-Khwarizmi Produces World Map Partly Based on Ptolemy's Work
With a relatively accurate map for his own region of the Middle East, the area between southwest Asia and northeast Africa. -
Jan 1, 1030
Al-Biruni Develops Triangulation
Triangulation determines the distance to a location using simple geometry, the branch of math that deals with shapes and sizes. Hw used geometry to calculate the radius of the earth with an error of less than 1 percent. -
Jan 1, 1375
Abraham Cresques Produces World Map Using Portolan Maps
Portolan maps were marine maps that sailors used. -
Jan 1, 1569
Gerardus Mercator Publishes His First Projection for Navigation
Gerardus Mercator solved the problem of how to portray the earth on a flat map so that when a navigator drew a straight line on the map, it portrayed the actual curved, great circle route followe by a traveler on the earth. -
Sextant Developed
The sextant is a portable instrument for determining latitude. -
John Harrison Develops Accurate Clock for Determining Longitude at Sea
Finding longitude accurately became such a big problem, that in 1714 a contest with an enormous sum of money as a prize was held to discover an improved method to finding longitude. John Harrison designed a highly accurate clock after 50 years and several attempts to create a clock that earned him the prize money. -
International Meridian Conference Chooses Greenwich as the Prime Meridian
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High Quality Maps are Produced from Aerial and Satellite Imagery and GIS; GPS is developed
In 1994, the last of 24 satellites was launched to complete the GPS, a means of determining a location on earth by using signals from satellites. With success, the GPS is used by military, various industries and by ordinary people.
