The sixth edition of the Milano Map Fair will be held on January 20th, 2018 at Hotel Michelangelo in Milan. We hope to see you there! https://www.milanomapfair.it/

World maps display the surface of a sphere on a flat surface, necessarily introducing distortion. In the Mercator projection, named for 16th century Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, the lines of longitude are represented as parallel vertical lines, even though on the surface of the earth, the lines of longitude approach each other, until they meet …

Continue reading “The Niger River”

In 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, landed at present-day Kozhikode, India, which was then Calicut, “The City of Spices,” capital of the independent Samoothiri (Zamorin) kingdom, which was then a rising power on India’s western Malabar coast. During the 14th century, the city grew into a center of the spice trade between Asia …

Continue reading “Vasco da Gama lands in Kozhikode, India”

The basic facts around the explorations of Christopher Columbus are known to most: under the patronage of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Castille, Columbus set off across the Atlantic in search of the East Indies (South and Southeast Asia), but instead landed in what would later be known as the West Indies, specifically the …

Continue reading “Columbus and the 1492 hurricane season”

In the 21st century, it’s possible that the conquistador Francisco de Orellana is best known from the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in which Orellana is said to have sought the fictional city of Akator, and in whose grave Jones finds the titular crystal skull. But Orellana’s adventures make a …

Continue reading “Francisco de Orellana: Crystal skulls, Amazons, and the Land of Cinnamon”

The earliest explorers were financially motivated; Columbus, Drake, Hudson (among many others) were looking for wealth, whether through trade or plunder. But as the world became better known, journeys of exploration took an increasing focus on scientific discovery. Captain Cook’s voyages were commissioned for scientific exploration (though Cook’s imperial claims for the British Empire were …

Continue reading “Exploration & Science – Alexander von Humboldt”