Maps: Changing your global perspective

The way we look at the world often depends on where we come from. Take maps for instance. A typical map that most of us Americans had in our grade school textbooks is the North America-centered one, with our continent smack dab in the middle. Often these maps are not completely true to scale, which can lead to a misunderstanding over the true size of a country or continent. What about other maps that are not so traditional?

As avid travelers, we here at Gadling are pretty obsessed with maps so it's no surprise that we've already written about ODT's upside down map (or is it right side up??), but the map company also has population based maps as well as equal area ones. These maps put more than just where a country is located into consideration, giving us a better perspective of how many people are in one place, and the evolution of the global population over the years, as well as what size countries truly are.

As for North America-centered maps, they have those too, along with Pacific-centered and Africa/Eurasia-centered, all to make you question your own global perspective.

Filed under: History, Learning