C O V E R  S T O R Y

Green Grammar

The image of the world map has been etched in our minds ever since we took our first basic geography lesson. But what if... it is redrawn—a little differently? For instance, if the territory of each country is ‘re-sized’ according to the volume of energy consumed by the people living in it?

It will be a world as we have never seen before. While countries like the US, Europe, Japan would balloon enormously, in complete contrast to their actual size, huge portions of the continent of Africa would probably be diminished to a tiny speck in the atlas.

Humans have always been very impressive story tellers. And maps tell stories. But now map-making has entered a very exciting new phase. Where technology allows each one of us to create our own maps, and share them with the rest of the world. With the help of portable electronic devices, the Internet, and free software ...


The Earliest Maps
The art of making maps dates back to 2300 BC in Babylonia.
The earliest known maps were created on clay tablets showing settlements, crop fields, water and irrigation sources, hunting grounds, land boundaries and significant landscape features. Mesopotamian maps of around 1600 BC show cities and tracks between fields and the built up areas. In other parts of the world, bones were carved showing various coastlines. Polynesians wove palm leaf mats and used twigs to show currents and prevailing winds and shells as islands. While small versions of these mats were used on trips, the larger ones were used for teaching purposes.

The Greek influence
This art of map-making was greatly developed by the Ancient Greeks.In 6th Century BC, Hecataeus (Greek philosopher, geographer and travel writer) drew a map depicting the world as an island with Greece at its heart. By 350 BC, or during the time of the great Greek philosopher Aristotle, people began to accept the concept of spherical earth. The Greek mathematician and astronomer, Eratosthenes, accurately calculated the circumference of the earth using angle measures.
      Ptolemy, the Greek mathematician, geographer, astronomer and astrologer, was the first to illustrate earth as spherical in his world map (drawn for the  first time on a flat paper). The map covered the Old World (mainly Europe, Asia and Africa, or Africa-Eurasia) from latitudes of about 60°N to 30°S. Simultaneously, other countries were developing maps. For instance, in China, maps were carved on wooden plates from around 240 BC.

But, there is nearly no information about the development of maps from the 2nd Century AD until the Medieval period. Most world maps were now dominated by religious views. The Church of Rome was the driving force behind map-making, and Jerusalem was the centre of the known world (reflecting the religious doctrines of 14th Century Europe). The Hereford Mappa Mundi, dating from 1300, is a typical example that shows Jerusalem at the centre and the east to the top.
      In contrast, Arab maps advanced the earlier Greek practices. Al-Idrisi designed a still-famous world map.
      European explorers such as Columbus, Vasco da Gamma, Cabot, Vespucci and Magellan, took mapmakers along on their voyages to map out the new lands and routes that they discovered. These ocean maps, or navigation charts, were very highly valued for commercial and military purposes, and treated as national treasures.

*   1427: Danish geographer Clausson Swart drew the first known map of Northern Europe.
*   1491: Cardinal Nicholas Krebs developed the first modern map of Germany.
*   1500: Erhard Etzlaub produced the earliest route map called the Romweg.
*   1508: Rosselli produced the first map showing the entire known world.
*   1508: Waldseemuller produces a remarkable and huge map of America, divided into 12 sheets, after the exploration by Amerigo Vespucci. It showed for the first time that America was not connected to Asia.
*   1513: Martin Waldseemuller produced the first known atlas consisting of 20 maps of France.

Mercator Projection
Belgian geographer Gerardus Mercator was a leading cartographer of the mid-16th Century. In 1569, he developed the cylindrical Mercator Projection, which, till today, is the base of map projections used by map-makers.

But, as no flat map can balance the size and shape of a spherical earth correctly, the Mercator Projection also has its flaws. It stretches the poles to the same width as the equator.
For example, it makes Iceland appear to be of the same size as Kenya (it is five times smaller in reality).

However, this projection allows for simple visualisation and navigation, as it keeps directions accurate, albeit at the expense of distance, area and shape.

Maps for colonial and military use

With the development of scientific mapping methods through the centuries, maps became more accurate and factual. They were now steadily brought under use for military purposes, as it was possible to view distant lands and develop strategic plans before deploying troops. During the 17th and 18th centuries, cartography and printed maps greatly advanced the conquest of the New World and Africa. In fact, superior map making abilities helped a colonial power like the British to—in a sense—'chain' India. (See box on Triangulation and the great arc)

Mapping was used to control the people in Britain. After the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland, Major General William Roy mapped the country in detail. His maps were used to police the rebellious Scots for decades. They led to the establishment of the Ordnance Survey in 1791, which is now the world's largest producer of commercial maps, and are still in use as the basis of the Ancient Woodland Inventory of Scotland.

The Great Trigonometrical Survey

More than 200 years ago, the over 2,400km of inch-perfect survey of India was, and still remains, one of the greatest human endeavours ever undertaken

Each millenium throws up a passion for doing something unique. One passion that prevailed throughout the 19th century was the accurate determination of the dimensions of the earth and the location of important geographical features in terms of latitude and longitude.

One of the greatest examples of this passion was the Great Arc.

In April 1802, Colonel William Lambton (along with George Everest, he is recognised as the man who made the Arc possible) decided to measure the great meridonial arc by trigonometric survey. On April 10, he laid the baseline for the measurement of the length of a degree of latitude along a longitude in the middle of peninsular India: at St Thomas' Mount in Madras.

He walked the heart of India along with a team of Indians. One of them was the chief computor Radhnath Sickdhar, who managed most of the instruments, and was known for the accuracy of his calculations. He, in fact, computed the height of Mt Everest.

Many labourers and assistants also helped them with the calculations, and worked on the instruments.

Some schoolteachers took on the survey on foot as they entered Tibet. Counting the steps on a rosary, distances stored in the prayer wheel, and instruments like compass, sextant, and thermometers stored in secret compartments of their trunks, they comprised the incognito army that made the survey possible.

In 1818, the government named the nearly half-a-century of dedicated effort ‘The Great Trigonometrical Survey’.This was the Great Arc, upon which, modern mapping and surveying of the Indian peninsula is still based.

Precision was the mantra; and it was so rigorously maintained that despite the more sophisticated mapping equipment and survey methods of today, the values arrived at then, have never been disputed.

Early maps of India

Map-making was integral to the American War of Independence. In 1755, John Mitchell's map showed the boundaries of the new United States defined by American and British negotiators in Paris in 1782 - 83. A notable piece of map-making in North America was that of the Mason-Dixon Line, which is associated with the division between the northern and southern (free and enslaved,, respectively) states during the American Civil War.