3 cartographic curiosities. Do you know them all?

Do you know how the map was created?

According to some researchers, the creation of maps is supposedly older than the art of writing itself, because primitive peoples already communicated with each other using drawings and graphically presented the immediate vicinity. The Phoenicians and Carthaginians were among the first tribes to construct nautical charts. Unfortunately, their achievements, although numerous, have not survived to this day. In turn, the Egyptians, already in the second millennium BC, made topographic sketches that they made based on measurements of field boundaries. The development of cartography was mainly due to the uprising in 320 BCE. Egyptian maps were used by such Greek geographers as Herodotus and Eratosthenes.

The founder of modern cartography is the Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerard Mercator. He created the mathematical foundations which became the foundations for the elimination of mistakes made in the previous years. In the 16th century ,Mercator made a nautical map in which the angles were presented without distortion, which is considered a landmark in modern cartography.

Currently, the oldest map in the world is considered to be about 13,600 years old and depicts the surroundings of the Abauntz cave in Spain.

Do you know what the first nautical charts did not contain?

Interestingly, the first nautical charts did not contain the meridians and parallels so well known to us today. The position concerning the directions of the world was indicated by the Wind Rose drawn on the map.

The Wind Rose was already used by the Etruscans, i.e. the people who inhabited northern Italy in antiquity. In the beginning, a rose consisting of 12 directions was associated by sailors with known winds, and one of the first records of it comes from a Greek admiral who lived in the 3rd century BC. In turn, some of the earlier changes to winds can be found in the books of the Old Testament. The use of the compass rose took place between 1300-1650 when detailed maps of the coasts began to be produced for practical navigation.

Do you know where the old 0 ° meridian called the Ferro meridian ran?

In the 17th century, the 0° meridian was considered to pass through the small Spanish island of El Hierro, which belongs to the Canary Islands archipelago. It is located farthest to the south and the west and for centuries has been considered a reference point for mapping and making geographic calculations. In 1634, Louis XIII Richelieud ecided that the Ferro meridian should be a reference point in maps. OPGK Rzeszów S. A. is one of the largest companies operating in the geodetic and cartographic industry for many years. We carry out many projects with success, care, and attention to quality.

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