Thursday, May 26, 2005

A Map of the World


New Ways to See the World 

"Perhaps we share stories in much the same spirit that explorers share maps, hoping to speed each other's journey, but knowing the journey we make will be our own." --Gloria Steinem

4 comments:

Saints and Spinners said...

Did you learn about it through the "West Wing?" I did!

Phil Saunders said...

Interestingly enough, the Islamic way of showing the map of the world is "upside down" like in your picture. Don't know why. I think it's also centered on Mecca.

Saints and Spinners said...

Darth Phil,
Now you've given me something to research. It never ends! Here is a link to more reading of "upside-down" maps:

http://www.flourish.org/upsidedownmap/

According to this (and other sources I've skimmed), the Islamic map has South as "up" because when a person woke up facing the sun, South was on the right. The perception that right=good made for a favorable map in which South was up.

Saints and Spinners said...

P.S. I like this a non-fiction picture-book about Ibn Battuta, a Muslim traveler of the 14th century. It's called
Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Battuta, 1325-1354, and it's written and illustrated by James
Rumford. While it's not a map book per se, I would use it to garner more interest in maps.