Where’s Waldo? Satellites Will Find Him
When map making was more art than science, dragons and monsters were depicted roaming the earth, providing the viewer with some distraction from the crude nature of the actual map. Maps were intended to portray, as accurately as possible, the spatial relationships between features – that is, where a feature is located relative to other features—and were, hopefully, drawn to a scale. In the early days, this may have varied across the map, especially ancient maps and simple sketches found on clay tablets, for example. In fact, since many map makers never saw the land they documented, instead depending on sketches brought back by explorers, maps might emphasize some features that were important to the map maker’s sponsor or benefactor and omit certain other features, depending on the goals.
