We often think of a map as a realistic representation of the world, but it is actually quite the opposite: a neat and idealistic drawing of borders in what are often messy places with no visible ...

The Mercator map, first created in the 16th century, has long been the standard map used for navigation and education, but it stretches land masses farther from the equator. For example, Greenland ...

In 1569, Flemish mapmaker Gerardus Mercator synthesized existing ideas in navigation and cartography to create a new type of world map. It has stood the test of time: Billions of people would ...

Africa's landmass is so big that Russia, China, India and the United States could fit in it. But that's not the impression you get when you look at the world map that's been in use for more than 450 ...

The African Union has backed a campaign to end the use by governments and international organizations of the 16th-century Mercator map of the world in favor of one that more accurately displays Africa ...

Do you know how big Africa really is? According to experts, most of us don’t, and it’s because the maps we grew up with weren’t telling the full story. Earlier this month, the African Union endorsed a ...

The Mercator world map, long a fixture in classrooms globally, makes the European Union appear almost as large as Africa. In reality, Africa is more than seven times bigger. It is a distortion that ...