The Beginning of Geography

The time I have chosen to start my blog is 600 BC in ancient Babylon as this is the earliest record of a world map. This map is called the ‘Imago Mundi’ and depicts Babylon in the centre of the world. Several texts accompanied the map describing the world as they saw it and five of the texts have survived along with the map. However, the word ‘geography’ was used much earlier then the Imago Mundi and was first written in 270 BC by Eratosthenes, who is said to have founded the area of science we now know as geography and is famous for calculating the circumference of the earth. 

                                        Eratosthenes                                Imago Mundi 

                                              

At a similar time, the ancient Greeks believed Homer, the poet and not the beloved television character, to be the founder of geography.  Many of his works of literature including the Odyssey contain large amounts geographical knowledge mainly referring to the Mediterranean.

             

             Homer the poet                        Homer the beloved television character

Hecataeus of Miletus, who was also a Greek, was one of the first to apply a practical element to geography. He gathered both previously written texts and physical specimens for his studies. He also often spoke to sailors who came to the busy ports to get accounts of the wider world. Through these accounts and his own studies, Hecataeus wrote detailed descriptions of the known world. He was also the first to discover and write about river features such as deltas and that winds blow to warmer regions from colder ones.

The Nile Delta

Although Eratosthenes is famous for finding the circumference of the earth, it was Pythagoras who first proposed a spherical earth. He deduced this because he noticed that a curved shadow is created by the earth during an eclipse and that the further north you move, the higher the stars become. From this discovery of a spherical earth,  Eudoxus of Cnidus explained how different climate zones are crated by the sun based on latitude.

Climate Zones