Paragraph on “Who drew the first accurate map of the known world?” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

Who drew the first accurate map of the known world?

The most knowledgeable map-maker of Ancient Times was undoubtedly Ptolemy. He was a Greek astronomer living in Egypt about 200 years after Christ. He drew the world’s first most accurate map, but before doing this he carried out an enormous amount of research.

He collected information from every source available to him. He interviewed Greek sail-ors who had travelled, anywhere at all. He A studied reports that came to him from other peoples and parts of the known world, from the Chinese in Asia, and from England and a. Scotland, India and parts of Europe and it Africa. Of course, Ptolemy knew nothing of the lands in the Southern Hemisphere – he had a no idea of the existence of the Americas, Australia, or even the extent of the African Continent.

He got the Mediterranean area almost right, although he depicted Spain and Portugal too far west, made Sri Lanka too big, and attached Scotland to England at right angles instead of directly on top. But equipped only with the evidence of, in the main, untrained travellers and without scientific aid, he made a fair estimation of the shape of that part of the world he knew. For hundreds of years after his death Ptolemy’s map was still regarded as being the most accurate.