Planisphere with world map made by Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154.
Planisphere with world map made by Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154.
The map was made for Roger, king of Sicily. The red lines are trade routes. This is a reproduction kept in UAE's Sharjah Museum.
near Greece, "fuck this there are so many islands, I will just draw some random circles here"
Captains wife: Just find a harbour and ask for directions.
Captain: no, it's just 2 islands over I'm sure
Captain: No we can't "just turn around", the wind is blowing this way!
This is impressively accurate for such an old map. But what happened to Italy? It's all over the place lol. I would've thought such an important trading region would be closer to reality. Spain and Portugal seem fairly correct too.
Italy has always looked like a boot, it's just that back in the day boots looked very different
BUT PEOPLE THOUGHT THE EARTH WAS FLAT!!!!!!
(EDIT: I figured people world know, since it was posted in a history community, but no, people didn’t think the earth was flat. Eratosthenes had measured the circumference of the earth to a reasonable degree of approximation in the 3rd century BC. Even in medieval Europe, people that cared, knew)
Some thought that ... and some didn't. Some noticed the shape of the Earth's shadow on the Moon was round. Some noticed that as ships sailed into the distance, they 'sank down' until only the sails were visible. All 'people' weren't smart about it.
Anyway, putting a big map like that on a 6-foot globe, you could stand in one place, spin it, and see it all.
Related fact: the Greek astronomer Anaxagoras taught that the Earth went around the Sun ... 1500 years before this map was made.
kn the 12th century pretty much noone belived that for millenials. maybe some cult but i wont count that. flat earth theory is funnily enough a modern thing. sure it is based on medival sources, that portray a flat earth, but these were christian sources tryint to portray gods realm and earth in one picture. it was like a metaphore, and we know even the church knew, accepted and teached about the round earth.
Not all people, but anyone who was educated knew. With a few exceptions for educated biblical literalists, who would not have been standard in the Catholic Church of the time. If you thought the world was flat, you were a bumpkin or an unorthodox fanatic.
Cool af
I wonder what the globe would show if we were to peek at its' southern hemisphere. And on the other side of the same hemisphere.
Completely accurate map of the americas lol
I ran across the unglobed map before I found the planisphere at the online British Museum's 'Silk Road' exhibition. Go there and look for the text 'Map of the world from al-Idrisi'. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/british-museum-silk-roads-exhibition-1234722468/
I found the planisphere image on the Wikipedia page for ' Tabula Rogeriana', which shows several chunks of the map. (Idrisi maps all have 'South' on the top of the map.) In the 'significance' section, there's a big version of the map. None of them are maps of the whole Earth ... it's said that his maps were all based on what people who'd been there told him.