30 Fascinating Maps From The Past That May Offer New Insights Into History

Cartography is usually defined as the science or practice of making maps. But some sources define it as an art form, and it’s not difficult to see why. Looking at this list, it’s evident that maps can be not only useful, but beautiful, too.

Some more elaborate or decorative than others, maps are always shaped by culture and the knowledge of the people who create them, says Carolyn Fish of University of Oregon. In an interview with Bored Panda, she noted that it's the individual worldviews of the map creators that drive what gets put on a map, what gets left off, and how it is designed.

Carolyn Fish continued to point out that maps are a representation of understanding of the world in the time when they were created. “This means that looking at old maps lets us get an idea of what the world looked like at that time,” she said.

“I remember my mom throwing out old maps that had the USSR on them saying ‘oh, they are out of date,’ but really, the borders on those maps, while not representative of the world in the 21st century, were valid for the time in which the map was created.”

According to Fish, old maps open up the potential for conversations about the past and what information was represented on a map from that time period. “Old maps tell a story of a past place. This is so important for understanding what is happening now and what histories shape a place,” the expert emphasized.

A great example of how old maps allow us to take a glimpse at what life was like hundreds or thousands of years ago is Imago Mundi – a Babylonian clay tablet, considered to be the oldest known world map, which reportedly dates all the way back to 6th century BCE. According to the World Economic Forum, it provides a unique look into the ancient world and ancient perspectives on earth and the heavens.

Talking about the technologies that made the biggest impact in the world of cartography, Carolyn Fish admitted not being an expert on historical cartography methods, but in her opinion, the invention of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has had a profound impact on map creation in recent decades.

“That combined with the internet and the ability to share maps and create interactive maps has allowed for those with different training to create maps and do geospatial analysis.”

Nowadays, arguably few people rely on good old unfoldable maps to get to their destination. It’s safe to assume that more people than not get around with the help of Google maps. As a matter of fact, in the US, at least, Google maps is the clear winner when it comes to leading mapping apps by downloads (based on data from 2023).