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How did people from medieval times make maps of the world?

I've seen some fairly accurate maps from medieval times of maps of the world, and have been wondering how they managed to make accurate images of countries and continents without technology.

Public Comments

1. they use their imaginations and make up random lines and dots, but in reality the earth isn't anything like that you see on the maps..
2. compass
3. interestong i have wondered the same
4. People specially trained to do it as apprentices. They also used the stars to work out distances. If you look at the maps by the ancient greeks and egyptians, although they only really deal with the immediate vicinity, the detail of coves etc is surprisingly accurate. Especially if you compare those done by differing cultures.
5. The Greeks understood that the earth was a sphere. Eratosthenes accurately calculated the circumference of the earth using angle measures. Then things went backwards. During the Middle Ages the Greek tradition of disinterested research was stifled in Western Europe by a theological dictatorship which bade fair, for a time, to destroy all hope of a genuine intellectual revival. It was the Arabs that were the Mapmakers of the Medieval period. Most Arab cartographers also used Ptolemy's instructions in the construction of their own maps. With this basis the Moslems combined the accumulated knowledge gained through exploration and travel. Moslem trade between the 7th and 9th centuries reached China by sea and by land; southward it tapped the more distant coasts of Africa, including Zanzibar; northward it penetrated Russia; and westward Mohammedan navigators saw the unknown and dreaded waters of the Atlantic. It wasn't until the 16th Century that Mercator created a map- the Mercator Projection that allowed mariners to sail to their destinations by following a fixed rule called a rhumb line.
6. People from this time, without technology, use what they had like a boat or would travel around the island in those or people who make this maps got information from people who would travel on the coast and helped the mappers out.