The map was made for Roger, king of Sicily. The red lines are trade routes. This is a reproduction kept in UAE’s Sharjah Museum.

  • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    4 days ago

    near Greece, “fuck this there are so many islands, I will just draw some random circles here”

    • iii@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 days ago

      Captains wife: Just find a harbour and ask for directions.

      Captain: no, it’s just 2 islands over I’m sure

  • Hubi@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    4 days ago

    This is impressively accurate for such an old map. But what happened to Italy? It’s all over the place lol. I would’ve thought such an important trading region would be closer to reality. Spain and Portugal seem fairly correct too.

  • iii@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    4 days ago

    Waauw cyprus is big! Basicaly all islands and peninsulas seem inflated. Perhaps a reflection of their importance in trade?

    Forgot to include the suez canal :p

  • vzq@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    4 days ago

    BUT PEOPLE THOUGHT THE EARTH WAS FLAT!!!

    (EDIT: I figured people world know, since it was posted in a history community, but no, people didn’t think the earth was flat. Eratosthenes had measured the circumference of the earth to a reasonable degree of approximation in the 3rd century BC. Even in medieval Europe, people that cared, knew)

    • kalkulat@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      4 days ago

      Some thought that … and some didn’t. Some noticed the shape of the Earth’s shadow on the Moon was round. Some noticed that as ships sailed into the distance, they ‘sank down’ until only the sails were visible. All ‘people’ weren’t smart about it.

      Anyway, putting a big map like that on a 6-foot globe, you could stand in one place, spin it, and see it all.

      Related fact: the Greek astronomer Anaxagoras taught that the Earth went around the Sun … 1500 years before this map was made.

      • SorryforSmelling@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        kn the 12th century pretty much noone belived that for millenials. maybe some cult but i wont count that. flat earth theory is funnily enough a modern thing. sure it is based on medival sources, that portray a flat earth, but these were christian sources tryint to portray gods realm and earth in one picture. it was like a metaphore, and we know even the church knew, accepted and teached about the round earth.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.worldM
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        3 days ago

        Not all people, but anyone who was educated knew. With a few exceptions for educated biblical literalists, who would not have been standard in the Catholic Church of the time. If you thought the world was flat, you were a bumpkin or an unorthodox fanatic.

  • niktemadur@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    edit-2
    4 days ago

    I wonder what the globe would show if we were to peek at its’ southern hemisphere. And on the other side of the same hemisphere.

    • kalkulat@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      3 days ago

      I ran across the unglobed map before I found the planisphere at the online British Museum’s ‘Silk Road’ exhibition. Go there and look for the text ‘Map of the world from al-Idrisi’. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/british-museum-silk-roads-exhibition-1234722468/

      I found the planisphere image on the Wikipedia page for ’ Tabula Rogeriana’, which shows several chunks of the map. (Idrisi maps all have ‘South’ on the top of the map.) In the ‘significance’ section, there’s a big version of the map. None of them are maps of the whole Earth … it’s said that his maps were all based on what people who’d been there told him.