Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Like his predecessors, Ptolemy made mistakes, and these influenced the course of science, philosophy,
and religion. His earth-centered universe would be accepted by the learned world for centuries to come. He
elaborated on the concept of the antipodes, expanding it into a Terra Australis Incognita (unknown south-
ern lands) which, on one hand, fueled speculation and hope of finding a great continent attached to the
bottom of Africa but, on the other hand, made sailing around Africa seem impossible.
But one of his mistakes was even more far-reaching. Relying upon Strabo's figures, Ptolemy declared
the world to be eighteen thousand miles around. On his maps, Asia extended far beyond its true width,
making the Orient seem far closer to Europe than it actually is. Ptolemy's authority, like Aristotle's, was
unquestioned by later Europeans, including most significantly one Genoan named Cristóbal Colón, who
used Ptolemy's figures to argue his case before the king and queen of Spain.
Geographic Voices
From Strabo's
Geographica
, written between
AD
17 and 23.
The Amazons are said to live among the mountains above Albania. . . . But other writers say
that the Amazons bordered upon the Gargarenses on the north, at the foot of the Caucasian moun-
tains. . . .
When at home they are occupied in performing with their own hands the work of plowing, plant-
ing and pasturing cattle, and particularly in training horses. The strongest among them spend much
of their time in hunting on horseback, and practice warlike exercises. All of them from infancy have
the right breast seared, in order that they may use the arm with ease for all manner of purposes,
and particularly for throwing the javelin. . . . They pass two months of the spring on a neighboring
mountain, which is the border between them and the Gargarenses. The latter also ascend the moun-
tain according to some ancient custom for the purpose of performing common sacrifices, and of
having intercourse with the women with a view to offspring, in secret and in darkness, the man with
the first woman he meets. When the women are pregnant they are sent away. The female children
that may be born are retained by the Amazons themselves. . . . Where they are at present few writers
undertake to point out.
Who Made the First Maps?
Even those Greeks, as extraordinary as they were, had help. Long before the rise of the classical Greek
period around 500
BC
, plenty of other people were observing the heavens and the earth, then drawing some
amazing conclusions about the workings of the universe. The Greeks, a trading and seafaring people who
came into contact with other civilizations, were quick studies.
One of those groups encountered by the Greeks was very good at figuring out the heavens. They also
left some of the earliest maps as well as the first “world map.” These were the people of the so-called
cradle of civilization, the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia whose descendants made the newspapers in
1990 and 1991 in explosive fashion in the country we now call Iraq.
Set between the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates (
Mesopotamia
is Greek for “the land between two rivers”)
lay a broad, fertile valley. Though much of it is desert today, ten thousand years ago it was covered by
ice-age grasslands. It was here that nomadic tribes of hunters followed herds of grazing animals. As the
ice caps retreated, deserts replaced the grazing land, and the nomads were drawn to the valley where the
annual flooding of the two rivers provided water and food for the animals. Over thousands of years, these
people learned the secret of sowing cereals in the mud beside the rivers—the birth of agriculture.
