{"id":8407,"date":"2025-10-05T15:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T12:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/weve-been-lied-to-for-500-years-africa-wants-to-see-itself-on-a-real-map\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T11:41:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:41:43","slug":"weve-been-lied-to-for-500-years-africa-wants-to-see-itself-on-a-real-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/en\/weve-been-lied-to-for-500-years-africa-wants-to-see-itself-on-a-real-map\/","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019ve been lied to for 500 years: Africa wants to see itself on a real map"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"8407\" class=\"elementor elementor-8407 elementor-5945\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-efa11ca e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"efa11ca\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-538dd70 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"538dd70\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWe all know the map hanging in the classroom or the small globe at home. It seems natural and obvious to us, but the truth is that it is based on a major mistake that has lasted for hundreds of years. \n\nThe Mercator projection was created in the 16th century specifically for sailors, to make navigation easier for them. It worked excellently for navigation, but it caused a huge distortion in the size of the continents. \n<h3>Africa, the second-largest continent in the world, appears much smaller than it really is.<\/h3>\n<b>A few surprising examples:\n<\/b>\n<ul>\n \t<li>Greenland appears to be almost the same size as Africa, but in reality Africa is 14 times larger.<\/li>\n \t<li>Europe appears to be roughly the same size, but in reality Africa is almost 3 times larger.<\/li>\n \t<li>Russia is perceived as \u201cgigantic,\u201d yet Africa\u2019s area is still twice as large: 30.3 million sq km versus 17.1 million sq km.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<b><\/b>\u05d4\u05de\u05e4\u05d4 \u05e9\u05d0\u05e0\u05d7\u05e0\u05d5 \u05e8\u05d2\u05d9\u05dc\u05d9\u05dd \u05dc\u05e8\u05d0\u05d5\u05ea, \u05d1\u05d4\u05d9\u05d8\u05dc \u05de\u05e8\u05e7\u05d8\u05d5\u05e8, \u05dc\u05d0 \u05e8\u05e7 \u05de\u05e6\u05d9\u05d2\u05d4 \u05e2\u05d5\u05dc\u05dd \u05de\u05e2\u05d5\u05d5\u05ea \u2013 \u05d4\u05d9\u05d0 \u05d2\u05dd \u05de\u05e9\u05e4\u05d9\u05e2\u05d4 \u05e2\u05dc \u05d0\u05d9\u05da \u05e9\u05d0\u05e0\u05d7\u05e0\u05d5 \u05d7\u05d5\u05e9\u05d1\u05d9\u05dd \u05e2\u05dc\u05d9\u05d5.\nToday, more and more researchers and educators are calling for a shift to equal-area maps, ones that show the world as it really is.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e489a04 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"e489a04\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3>And for Africa, this is no longer just geography. It is a question of identity, dignity, and continental pride. A map is not just a drawing \u2014 it is also a mirror. And Africa wants to see itself in it as it truly is.   <\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all know the map hanging in the classroom or the small globe at home. It seems natural and obvious to us, but the truth is that it is based on a major mistake that has lasted for hundreds of years. The Mercator projection was created in the 16th century specifically for sailors, to make [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[235],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-maps-en"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Africa.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8408,"href":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8407\/revisions\/8408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maps-systems.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}