Where am I?

January 25, 2005

The oldest known maps were drawn on clay tablets 4,300 years ago in Babylonia (modern-day Iraq). The ancient Greeks were accomplished mapmakers who had accepted the idea that the world is a sphere, not flat, by about the time of Aristotle (350 BC). Starting about 1500, when the age of exploration began, cartography became more important. Instead of maps being all hand-drawn, now they could be printed using woodblocks or copper plates. Maps that depicted coastlines, river estuaries, and compass bearings were valuable to merchants and monarchs. Some maps were state secrets.

Today, with low-cost GPS units, it can be easy to know where you are - unless someone (Kidspace editors and artists, in this case) is trying to trick you. Look at the maps on the PDF. Do you know where you are?