The History Of The First World Map | Face Of The World | Timeline

How does mankind find its way around the planet? How do people know where roads lead and what lies on the far side of the ocean? Did Marco Polo have an atlas showing the way to China? Did the Romans mark the borders of their empire on maps? For thousands of years distant lands and foreign nations were mysteries. And yet accounts of these mysteries were available – in travel books and on maps of the world.

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[EASYTIGER]

This has always fascinated me. We are so used to accurate maps and know exactly how to get to places and what "shape" things are. But what was it like for the Greeks? The Romans? Did they know what "shape" their empire was? What the shape of the Persian empire is?

[KJBWorld]

When I was a kid when I would travel around the national parks, I used a piece of paper and would trace the horizon. Mountains, giant trees, rivers etc. Basic enough, but it worked well. I would imagine something of that sort happened back then

[johnmichaellibres]

To travel the world is my prime reason why I became a navigator/sailor and I love seeing charts and other countries culture and territorial sceneries

[JUSTENization]

After the fall of Saigon, the Vietnamese boat people set out to sea in search for freedom. My whole family and I headed out to South China sea, just east of Vietnam. Even that “sea” overwhelmed us all! After watching this, I have to hat off to those old time mariners! Whether their purposes were good or bad, crossing open oceans meant dead awaiting. They traveled with wooden boats and sails, limited supplies, yet they reached new lands and bought back goods to prove of their journey! 🙏🏻

[hopedanica]

Maps show the growing knowledge of people in an interesting way. Thanks.

[truxlee]

The Polynesians developed superb navigators of the Pacific who took their cues from very near ones like wave patterns, cloud formations, and birds indicating land was nearby, to using complex celestial navigation on very long direct voyages. Their system was somewhat fail safe in their environment because finding favorable winds for sailing eastwardly were not that difficult to locate. If something went seriously wrong on a voyage, the ocean surface currents which mostly moved from east to west would eventually return them to somewhere in the general area of their starting point.

[gabrielalexanderkhoury]

The cartographer of the King of Sicily, al Idrisi, reported, after visiting Britain, that it was "the land of permanent winter". Mediterranean lands hardly experience rain during the Summer months, only in winter. Most medieval maps had Jerusalem at their center.

[elisabethbennenbroek]

Ancient civilizations passed this from father to son, the old libraries had knowledge, but too often these were burned or destroyed

[TherdCoin]

I wonder how they did it cause people still get lost with GPS.

[mfadls]

As it is mentioned at around time 7:35 that the Phoenician sailors have sailedtoward India, I just want to mention that they've actually reached further to the islands of Indonesia. The phoenician-influenced alphabets have been used in some part of Sumatra island in ancient time.

[liviervilla]

Did not hear John Harrison and his invention of the chronometer, essential for the fixing of longitude, mentioned. Enjoyed the film.

[wannabetall]

A modern remake of this program would be amazing!

[benjaminwachold]

How do you navigate the oceans of the world 🌍 without charts?? It’s interesting to learn how man formed an understanding of the world and how to get around in it. Excellent documentary Thank you 🙏🏻.

[andrejsurdevics]

A friend had a complete set of the maps of the roads of Rome. At first when he found the maps he did not know what he had. Later after he worked out what he had, he was incredibly excited. He sold them to a European museum, for a lot of money.

[billdagrasshawking]

Not sure if it’s brought up here but the way “knots” became the unit of velocity for sea travel is a funky piece of historical trivia that viewers might want to look into.

[rich]

A book I recommend to all sailors "longitude " great book on the roots of navigation, politics, science and innovation .

[wickedgrinaz]

I’ve always kind of wondered about this. Mapping styles were probably unique to each map and culture

[Mujangga]

Nice documentary. Perhaps instead of focusing on the border drawing of the Middle-East and Africa, the doc makers could have mentioned the Great Geodetic Survey of India: truly a great work of Science.

[j.m.s.]

Henry The Navigator was never King of Portugal. He was the 5th son of King John I. Other than this, brilliant stuff.

[smroog]

EXCELLENT !!! EXCELLENT !!! A wonderful overview of our history. Thank you.