Maps

Understand

History

Maps have existed for hundreds of years and mapmaking become more common once exploration and discoveries of new lands began. However, these maps, such as those made by explorers in the 1500s (see Age of Discovery, were often not drawn very accurately, as they lacked the tools for doing so. Still, they usually include features for actually using them in navigation or other intended uses, to fully understand the markings, one must understand the navigation techniques of the time. You don't have to know the exact position of a feature, as long as you can determine a safe route close enough that you find it. Mapmaking gradually became more accurate as the related technologies evolved, and with aerial photography, satellites and GPS, maps have become extremely accurate. The accuracy has posed new problems: with former triangulation techniques, relative locations were often fairly exact while they could be considerably off from their claimed position; a fairway could be correctly drawn to pass between islands, but as the islands were off, a GPS navigator would have a boater steer straight towards one of them. Maps are commonly incorporated into encyclopedias and travel guides such as this one; the map on the right was specifically created for Wikivoyage.

Map types

Layouts and designs Many maps, particularly in historic times, were on a single sheet of paper; however, maps in more recent times have been in other layouts, including those in leaflets and whole books, which are called atlases. An entire three-dimensional world map to scale is a terrestrial globe, free of projection distortions but inherently much less portable than its two-dimensional counterparts. While historic maps were often hand drawn, maps today are mostly computer-made. Nowadays there is an abundance of information on any area, and the prime design choice to make is about balancing the amount of information to include against how easy it is to grasp; a cluttered map is difficult to use. Somebody who is to drive along highways needs to easily discern major cities and road numbers, which are clearly signposted on the road, and other features can be added to the extent they don't int

Buying a map

Maps are often available from stores catering to users of the specific map type. Road maps can often be bought at petrol stations, hiking maps from visitor centres or stores for hiking equipment and so on. Also many book stores sell maps. Of course the maps can be bought on the web, from web stores of such businesses or of the publishers.

Map-making companies

Physical maps The Geographers' A-Z Street Atlas makes maps for urban areas in the United Kingdom. The first atlas of London was published in 1936 after its artists, Phyllis Pearsall, had completed the monumental task of walking the 3000 miles it took to cover every single one of London's 23,000 streets, to verify their names and locations, and even pinpoint house numbers, stations and points of interest. As well as being mapped, the streets were listed in the lengthy index, from Aaron Hill Road to Zoffany Street! While the London atlas is still the most iconic, every urban area in Britain now has its own A-Z, and the series has spawned numerous copies from commercial competitors. Car tyre company Michelin produces some of the best road maps in Europe, most notably of its native France, but also of most other European countries and of the continent as a whole. They were first made in 1905 to complement their famous Guides rouges (for hotels and restaurants, responsible for doling out the prestigious Michelin stars); the Guides verts (for tourist attractions, scenic routes and interesting cities) followed in the 1930s. Other prominent road atlas makers in the European market are the AA, Collins and Philip's. The Ordnance Survey was first conducted across Great Britain in the wake of the Jacobite uprising (1745) and was a pioneering attempt to map first the whole of Scotland, then all of the British Isles, at a scale of 1:36,000. Throughout the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, these maps were refined and updated using the method of triangulation – the trig points which stand on most peaks in the country are the product of the 1936 effort. Today, the OS use satellite mapping like everyone else, and they make by far the most detailed topographic maps of Britain, which are essential to any traveller wan

Using a map

Activities Certain activities, especially those where transportation is involved, are made easier with a map.

Driving

When driving, a road atlas offers some advantages over a collection of unwieldy, loose map sheets. It is easier to use a map for driving when you're traveling long distances on major highways than when you are driving down a narrow street in a large city. Having a second person as map reader is essential unless you have a device giving directions by voice. Having the device in a well-placed rack allows the driver to use its screen for navigation when little happens on the road, but only as long as there are no surprises or confusion – checking more carefully or changing settings will take away your attention from the road for the moment you should have noticed that elk, bike or child. In streets or on busy roads there may be too much happening for even a glance at the navigator.

Public transport Public transport services provide maps showing the extent of their service. Some have the lines on a normal map, which can be used also for orienteering by foot, or a miniature one that can easily be used together with another city map. Maps for underground lines are often schematics with distorted distances and directions; the user is assumed to know what station they are heading for, using the map to see whether and where to transfer and to see the intermediate stops.

Hiking

Many parks, especially those at a national level, will provide maps of their trail network. These will include other locations, like a visitor center or points of interest, as a reference for comparison with the trails. Park maps are often topographic, showing hills by contour lines, with each contour line representing a particular elevation. The farther apart the contour lines are, the flatter the area. Therefore, trails that cross many contour lines within a short distance will be more difficult hikes than trails that cross only a few or no contour lines. Also vegetation types are often shown, at least on the level of distinguishing forest from open terrain, and marking marshes and stone fields. Where trails are not well-marked or where you might want to make a detour