The Ptolemy world map is a map of the world known to Greco-Roman societies in the 2nd century. It is based on the description contained in Ptolemy's book '' Geography'', written . Based on an inscription in several of the earliest surviving manuscripts, it is traditionally credited to

Agathodaemon of Alexandria Agathodaemon of Alexandria ( grc-gre, Ἀγαθοδαίμων Ἀλεξανδρεὺς, ''Agathodaímōn Alexandreùs'') was a Greek or Hellenized cartographer, presumably from Alexandria, Egypt, in late Antiquity, probably in the 2nd century A.D. ...

. Notable features of Ptolemy's map is the first use of longitudinal and latitudinal lines as well as specifying terrestrial locations by celestial observations. The ''Geography'' was translated from Greek into Arabic in the 9th century and played a role in the work of al-Khwārizmī before lapsing into obscurity. The idea of a global coordinate system revolutionized European geographical thought, however, and inspired more mathematical treatment of cartography. Ptolemy's work probably originally came with maps, but none have been discovered. Instead, the present form of the map was reconstructed from Ptolemy's coordinates by Byzantine monks under the direction of Maximus Planudes shortly after 1295. It probably was not that of the original text, as it uses the ''less'' favored of the two alternate projections offered by Ptolemy.

Continents

The continents are given as Europe, Asia, and Libya ( Africa). The World Ocean is only seen to the west. The map distinguishes two large enclosed seas: the Mediterranean and the Indian (''Indicum Pelagus''). Due to Marinus and Ptolemy's mistaken measure of the circumference of the earth, the former is made to extend much too far in terms of degrees of arc; due to their reliance on Hipparchus, they mistakenly enclose the latter with an eastern and southern shore of unknown lands, which prevents the map from identifying the western coast of the World Ocean. India is bound by the

Indus The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...

and Ganges rivers, but its peninsula is much shortened. Instead,

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

('' Taprobane'') is greatly enlarged. The

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...

is given as the

Golden Chersonese The Golden Chersonese or Golden Khersonese ( grc, Χρυσῆ Χερσόνησος, ''Chrysḗ Chersónēsos''; la, Chersonesus Aurea), meaning the Golden Peninsula, was the name used for the Malay Peninsula by Greek and Roman geographers in cla ...

instead of the earlier "Golden Island", which derived from Indian accounts of the mines on

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

. Beyond the Golden Chersonese, the Great Gulf (''Magnus Sinus'') forms a combination of the

Gulf of Thailand The Gulf of Thailand, also known as the Gulf of Siam, is a shallow inlet in the southwestern South China Sea, bounded between the southwestern shores of the Indochinese Peninsula and the northern half of the Malay Peninsula. It is around in l ...

and South China Sea which is bound by the unknown lands thought to enclose the Indian Sea.

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

is divided into two realms—the Qin (''Sinae'') and the Land of Silk (''Serica'')—owing to the different accounts received from the overland and maritime

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

s. The ''Geography'' and the map derived from it probably played an important role in the expansion of the Roman Empire to the East. Trade throughout the Indian Ocean was extensive from the 2nd century, and many Roman trading ports have been identified in India. From these ports,

Roman embassies to China Sino-Roman relations comprised the (mostly indirect) contacts and flows of trade goods, of information, and of occasional travellers between the Roman Empire and the Han Empire of China, as well as between the later Eastern Roman Empire and ...

are recorded in Chinese historical sources from around 166. The Danish historian Gudmund Schütte attempted to reconstruct the Danish part of Ptolemy's world map. It includes several place- and tribe-names, some of which Schütte assigned a contemporary equivalent. The most prominent feature of the map is the

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

Jutland placed north of the river '' Albis Trêva'', west of the ''Saxonôn'' Nesôi ( archipelago), east of the ''Skandiai'' Nêsoi, which itself lies west of a larger island ''Skandia''. ''Skandia'' is home to the '' Goutai'' in the center, and the '' Phiraisoi'' in the east. North of Jutland lies a third archipelago ''Alokiai'' Nêsoi. South of the ''Albis'' live the '' Lakkobardoi'' and to its north the ''

Saxones The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country ( Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the No ...

''. The west coast of Jutland is home to the ''Sigulônes'', the ''Sabaliggio'', the ''

Kobandoi The Cobandi, Greek Kobandoi, were a Germanic tribe mentioned in Ptolemy's ''Geography'' (2.10), who lived in Jutland. See also *List of Germanic peoples This list of ancient Germanic peoples is an inventory of ancient Germanic cultures, tribal g ...

'', the ''Eundusioi'' and the northernmost ''Kimbroi'' (possibly Cimbri). North and east is home to the ''Kimbrikê'' (possibly Cimbri), the ''Chersonêsos'' and the '' Charudes''.

References

External links

Ptolemaic images
at the European Library

the first to use Ptolemy's 2nd projection, at the University of Minnesota

at Columbia University
Richard Donohue's presentation of Ptolemy's projection with modern geographic knowledge

GIS Analysis and Digital Reconstruction of Ptolemy's India beyond the Ganges, Serike and Sinae

Iterative Reconstruction of Ptolemy’s West Africa Using Modern GIS Analysis

Visualization and GIS Analysis of Ptolemy’s One-Sided Globe in the Old and Modern Contexts
{{cartography topics World map Historic maps of the world Foreign relations of ancient Rome 2nd-century works