Tired of your day-to-day life? Looking for an escape? Try browsing through an atlas, or book of maps.
Maps can take you on imaginary trips all over the world—and even out of this world. Most folks use maps to help them get from one place to another. But maps can also give you ideas for new places to go. They help us peek into the past. They show how people saw the world at different times in history.
A map is a picture. It shows how places connect and compare to each other. A single map can’t tell us everything—there’s not enough room. So each map shows a selected reality. A map may be scribbled on scrap paper. Or it may be a carefully painted work of art.
Mapmaking, or cartography, is both a science and an art. People expect maps to be both pretty and accurate. Let’s look at some maps and visit new places!
