Ptolemy's Ancient Geography
Ptolemy was the greatest geographer of ancient times. The map on the bottom left shows the world as Ptolemy described it. Ptolemy lived and worked in Alexandria, the Greek and Roman administrative capital of Egypt. His great work on geography and mapmaking, called the Geography, appeared around the year 150 AD. It influenced philosophers and scientists for 1500 years. |
(Above) A map of the world based on Ptolemy's descriptions from Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia published in Basel in 1559. Click on the picture to see a larger image. |
Ptolemy was a great mapmaker He...
but he made mistakes He...
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