World map

This article is about maps of the Earth. For other uses, see World map (disambiguation).

Historical map of the world by Ortelius, 1570 CE

A world map is a map of the surface of the Earth, which may be made using any of a number of different map projections. A map projection is any method of representing the surface of a sphere or other three-dimensional body on a plane.

Maps of the world are often either 'political' or 'physical'. The most important purpose of the political map is to show territorial borders; the purpose of the physical map is to show features of geography such as mountains, soil type or land use. Geological maps show not only the physical surface, but characteristics of the underlying rock, fault lines, and subsurface structures.

[edit] Projections

A world map on the Winkel tripel projection, a low-error map projection^[1] adopted by the National Geographic Society for reference maps.

Main article: Map projection

Maps that depict the surface of the Earth use a projection, a way of translating the three-dimensional real surface of the geoid to a two-dimensional picture. Perhaps the best-known world-map projection is the Mercator Projection, originally designed as a form of nautical chart.

Aeroplane pilots use aeronautical charts based on a Lambert conformal conic projection, in which a cone is laid over the section of the earth to be mapped. The cone intersects the sphere (the earth) at one or two parallels which are chosen as standard lines. This allows the pilots to plot a great circle (shortest distance) route approximation on a flat, two-dimensional chart.

[edit] Thematic

Further information: thematic map

Clickable world map (with climate classification)
Elevation map
A simple political map of the World as of 2011
Pacific-centric map (more commonly used in East Asian countries and Australia)
Present day Earth altimetry and bathymetry (Mollweide projection)
Topographical map of the world
map of anthropogenic CO₂ emission by country
UN Human Development Index by country as of 2008
Volcano Map
world map showing the continents as of 200 million years ago (Triassic period)

[edit] Historical

Further information: Early world maps

World map according to Posidonius (150-130 B.C.), drawn in 1628 A.D.
Tabula Rogeriana world map by Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154. Note that north is to the bottom