Maps are images of places that transport their viewers through the imagination to distant, unknown places, and reduce distances to an image the size of the palm of the hand.
Mapping is a basic human instinct that helps us move from one place to another and return to the starting point. In the technical definition of maps, we find that they are defined as representative graphic drawings that facilitate the spatial understanding of objects, concepts, conditions, processes, or events in the human world.
The book covers 12 world maps from different cultures and moments in world history, and examines the innovative processes through which some attempted to solve the problems facing their mappers, from conception and abstraction to scale, perspective, orientation, and projection.