The article talks about what a map is, what it is for, what types of maps there are, and in particular, about the map of Russia and the world.
Ancient times
The wide development of the continents and the discovery of new lands began in the Middle Ages and continued until the beginning of the 20th century. The last "surrendered" to people was Antarctica, which became the grave for many researchers. But with the development of navigation and travel in general, an urgent need for maps gradually arose. After all, new lands or the path traveled had to be somehow marked for followers. The first maps were very approximate and schematic images. Due to the poor development of navigation equipment and, as a result, the low accuracy of maps, their compilers, compensating for the latter, competed in artistic design. But, fortunately, cartography has reached its heights in our time, especially with the launch of thousands of satellites into orbit. So what is a map? What are they and what are they for? We'll figure it out.
Definition
According to the dictionary, a geographical map is an image of the Earth's surface with a coordinate grid, respecting proportions relative to its scale and applying conventional signs.
If we take this definition as a general one, then the mapone can name a generalized, smaller image of the Earth's surface, another planet, a celestial body or space as a whole, which shows all objects in one or another system of conventional signs. What is a card we figured out, but what is it for?
The answer is very simple - for orientation. By finding some specific objects or an array of them on the ground and doing the same on the map, you can accurately determine your location. In fact, it is absolutely impossible to do without maps in our time, even an abundance of signs will not help, besides, they are not everywhere.
Tourists and geologists, captains of sea vessels, military and civil pilots use the maps, after all, in a big city one cannot do without guidebooks, because anyone can get lost in the interweaving of streets. Now we know what maps are. But what kinds are there?
Views
The first and most basic is geographical. It accurately shows the outlines of the continents, all proportions are observed on one scale or another, and natural objects are indicated - rivers, seas, mountains, lakes, forests, etc. But you can not meet such people so often, and general geographic ones are more common, on which roads, cities and other settlements are also plotted.
The second type is thematic maps. They are dedicated to a single object - a natural park, a forest or a tourist route. Socio-political can also be attributed to this type. Their goal is not just to reliably show the area, but to display one or another state - maps of states, their natural resources, political system or number ofpopulation.
Map of Russia
The territory of this country ranks first in the world in terms of area. And its map itself is also large, and on all scales. It includes many natural and climatic mountains. Over the past centuries, it has changed many times due to wars and political regimes, and the map with the largest scale was created in the Soviet Union. Of course, it also includes those territories that in our time do not belong to Russia, but it is suitable for orientation.
Map of the world
The final and complete image of the globe was obtained only with the discovery of all the continents. But for a long time it was supplemented by new objects, such as islands. Now everyone can get acquainted with the map of the world, and for this you do not need to look for an atlas - high-quality satellite images are available to all Internet users.
So now we know what a map is and what it's for.
