Just Maps

The earliest known map to date is a wall painting of the ancient Turkish city of 'atal H'y'k which has been dated to the late 7th millennium BCE. Other known maps of the ancient world include the Minoan 'House of the Admiral' wall painting from c. 1600 BCE showing a seaside community in an oblique perspective, and an engraved map of the holy Babylonian city of Nippur, from the Kassite period (14th 12th centuries BCE). The ancient Greeks and Romans created maps beginning with Anaximander in the 6th century BC. In ancient China, geographical literature spans back to the 5th century BC. The oldest extant Chinese maps come from the State of Qin, dated back to the 4th century BC during the Warring States era.