What can we learn from maps, apart from geography?

Maps lie. More than we think they do.

Absolutely all world maps are deceptive because of maths. To represent the 3D spherical shape of the Earth on a 2D flat piece of paper, one would necessarily distort at least one of the parameters, be it size, distance, scale, or position. The choice of what must be kept as precise as possible and what can be sacrificed will often depend on the map’s purpose – is it for land or marine navigation? For exploration, measurement, information? For teachers, tourists, drivers?

And whatever the target is, there’s always space for persuasion or cartographic propaganda, which a map author can use on their own initiative or upon somebody else’s request to convey specific, often subjective ideas. The concept might sound like something relatively new, while it appeared together with the first world maps – so yes, somewhere in the Middle Ages.