Aerial View Maps

How were people thousands of years ago able to make maps?

I'm not sure how this is possible since they didn't have an aerial view if the earth.

Public Comments

1. Basicaly they would measure point from point then they would draw a picture to scale of those distances. For instance say there was a straight road a person would measure it say it was 100 units long then on the map they could make it 1 unit long and they would do this with other landmarks.
2. That's a good question.
3. they used a method that is still used today. Start from a known point. Measure a distance and direction to another point of interest. For example from the bridge, measure to the distance and direction to the lighthouse. Then measure from the bridge to the boat landing. Do it again and again and again with all the points of interest. If you have to go around things, there are methods of triangulation to solve that problem. Take all those points and and using a scale (1 inch on the map equals 50,000 inches in real life as an example) When you plot all those points and you have a map of the points of interests. If you are drawing a topographic map. You would start from a known point (the altitude and location on the globe are known) You measure a several distances, angles AND altitude. when you plot them and connect with a line all the points with the same altitude, you get a profile of the land's features (hills etc.) That is a simple explanation of cartography.