According to legend, many maps in the Middle Ages included the phrase "Here Be Dragons" to mark unknown regions of the world. However, this phrase was rarely used. It only appears on one globe. But the idea of unknown lands captured the imagination of people in the past. This idea still captures imaginations today.

There were no dragons. But there were some very large creatures. The earliest known maps were made in the Stone Age when woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primogenuis) and humans shared the Earth.

Mammoth Ivory Maps

The woolly mammoth was a relative of the elephant that lived in North America and Eurasia. Early humans hunted mammoths for food. Sometimes, they also used mammoth tusks or bones to make maps.

The oldest map ever discovered is from around 25,000 years ago. The map is a set of markings on a mammoth tusk. The tusk was discovered in Central Europe. Experts say that the engravings show a mountain, a river, valleys, and trails around a town.

Abauntz Map

Another old map was made about 13,500 years ago. It is called the Abauntz map because it was found in a cave in Abauntz, in northeast Spain. This map was carved on a small tablet of stone. The engraving shows rivers, mountains, ponds, animals and pathways. The map is believed to show a past hunt or hunting grounds.

The Çatalhöyük Map

Several thousand years later, humans were making maps on the walls of buildings. In the southern Anatolian Plateau in modern Turkey, there are the two human-made mounds of Çatalhöyük. It was the site of a Neolithic village. The mounds were formed between 7400 and 5200 B.C.E.

Of particular interest to cartographers is a three-meter (10-foot) mural on a wall of one mound. It dates back to around 6600 B.C.E. The lower half of the mural shows tightly packed "cells" thought to represent a village. The upper half shows mountain peaks. Dark spots may show volcanoes.

Babylonian Maps

The Babylonians produced the first known world map. The map dates back to around 600 B.C.E. The Babylonians used cuneiform, an ancient writing system, to create the map. It is engraved on a clay tablet. It shows Babylon at the center of the world and depicts mythical creatures that the Babylonians believed existed in other parts of the world.

Ancient Greek Maps

Anaximander of Miletus, a Greek philosopher born around 610 B.C.E., also made an early map. Like the Babylonian map, his map was circular. It featured Delphi, a town in Greece, at its center. Europe was on one side and Asia on the other. The entire world was surrounded by water.

Hecataeus lived in Greece during the fifth century B.C.E. He improved on Anaximander's map. He traveled extensively and wrote an account of his travels in Asia. Hecataeus drew a map of the world based on Anaximander's and his own travels. Unfortunately, both Anaximander’s and Hecataeus’s maps are lost, but some descriptions remain.

Another Greek scholar, Ptolemy, lived in Egypt from around 100 to 170 C.E. Known as the "father of geography," Ptolemy invented a system of latitude and longitude. This system is widely used to locate places on Earth.

Chinese Silk Maps

Maps from the Han Dynasty were found in a tomb in China. These maps date back to the second century C.E. Each map shows a different kind of geography. One of the maps shows rivers and mountains. There are also human homes pictured. The map uses special markings to show the mountains, rivers and homes. Another map found at the site is a political map. It shows the border of another country. It was likely used by the army. These are the oldest maps found in China, but historians believe there were many maps made in China before this.

Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-Mamālik Map and Other Islamic Maps

An Islamic teacher named al-Idrisi made another famous map in 1154 C.E. He used other maps and added his own research to create one of the most detailed maps of the time. It is a set of small maps that can be put together to form a larger map. Al-Idrisi’s map shows the Mediterranean Sea and other important landmarks.

This map also provides important clues about Islamic culture. Today’s maps place Europe in the middle. That is because Europeans made maps that spread across the world through colonization. Al-Idrisi’s map is different. It places south at the top. This is so that the Islamic holy city of Mecca is in an important spot. Later, Christian maps put east at the top of the map. That put their holy city of Jerusalem in the middle. These maps are different because their makers had different beliefs.

Other Islamic mapmakers improved mapmaking too. Around 820 C.E., the famous scholar Al-Khwarizmi created a better version of latitude and longitude. These are imaginary lines that go around the globe. Latitude and longitude can be used to pinpoint a location anywhere in the world. Al-Khwarizmi mapped more than 2,000 places on his world map.

Better maps affected the world in both good and bad ways. Europeans used the Islamic maps to make new maps with Europe in the middle. The maps helped them explore the world. It also helped them take resources from other places and set up colonies around the world. Today’s maps and GPS system were built on the work of early mapmakers. Maps used in cars, phones and other digital devices use the same ideas as these early maps.