Aerial View Maps

How were maps drawn before aerial views could be made?

I want to know how the world map was drawn hundreds of years ago before people could fly. Esp places like siberia and those regions which were hard to cross etc. I can't figure out how they knew to draw the coastlines etc.

Public Comments

1. They didn't. Most maps of hundreds of years ago were horribly innaccurate based on the inexperience of the cartographer drawing what he knew and making up what he didn't know. Many maps of hundreds of years ago had California as an island with a negligible coastline, had South America further east than it actually was, and a lot of important features like entire continents left out altogether. Cartographers had to literally go in person to every place they intended to draw in order to draw accurate maps. Army Corps Engineers traveled all over the United States during the 1920's and 1930's to draw accurate maps of every state in the Union, which meant they had to climb mountain ranges, sail coastlines, hang out in deserts, and get to know the plains real well. Many of the maps they drew back in the day have minor innaccuracies, and are still used as reference maps for new maps being published today (I have an atlas of Northern California published by Rand McNally that has references to places that no longer exist, roads that have been changed, and lakes that are filled up with silt or dried up due to water diversion.) It's fun to look at the old maps in the museums and see what the mapmaker got wrong. This website is a good place to start: http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/maps/ Have fun exploring.
2. This gives you basic info on how maps were made years ago. For more info see Wikipedia "Map Making". In cartography, technology has continually changed in order to meet the demands of new generations of mapmakers and map users. The first maps were manually constructed with brushes and parchment and therefore varied in quality and were limited in distribution. The advent of magnetic devices, such as the compass and much later magnetic storage devices, allowed for the creation of far more accurate maps and the ability to store and manipulate them digitally. Advances in mechanical devices such as the printing press, quadrant and vernier allowed for the mass production of maps and the ability to make accurate reproductions from more accurate data. Optical technology, such as the telescope, sextant and other devices that use telescopes, allowed for accurate surveying of land and the ability of mapmakers and navigators to find their latitude by measuring angles to the North Star at night or the sun at noon. Advances in photochemical technology, such as the lithographic and photochemical processes, have allowed for the creation of maps that have fine details, do not distort in shape and resist moisture and wear. This also eliminated the need for engraving which further shortened the time it takes to make and reproduce maps. In the late 20th century and early 21st century advances in electronic technology led to a new revolution in cartography. Specifically, computer hardware devices such as computer screens, plotters, printers, scanners (remote and document) and analytic stereo plotters along with visualization, image processing, spatial analysis and database software, have democratized and greatly expanded the making of maps. The ability to superimpose spatially located variables onto existing maps created new uses for maps and new industries to explore and exploit these potentials. See also digital raster graphic.[1] Wikipedia
3. TRIANGULATION. Setting aside the maps that were purely guess work Hills were used as markers. One person on hill A sited on a fire on hill B and then sited on hill C. If the compass bearings of each are known and the distance between two of the points is known simple maths will give you the answer. Take a look at the map of Northern Kenya in the Turkana region. The border is a straight line. This border was set up this way.
4. The ancient Romans had very perfect maps of all the world. The survey of the world started in 44 BC and was com pleated by Augustus. The map of all the world was exposed in 12 BC in Rome under the porch of Vispania.