Map Studies

A map is one of geography's most powerful tools. It shrinks the whole Earth onto a sheet of paper so it can be studied, measured and understood at a glance. Knowing what a map is, what kinds exist, what every map must contain, and how maps are made is a practical, frequently-tested part of geography.

A map is a selective, symbolised and generalised representation of the whole or part of the Earth, drawn to a reduced scale on a flat surface. The art and science of making maps is cartography. Because the round Earth cannot be shown perfectly on flat paper, maps use a system of projections. (The oldest known map, on a clay tablet, comes from Mesopotamia. In India, the Survey of India was set up in 1767.)

Maps are classified in two main ways:

• By scale:
  • Large-scale maps show small areas in great detail: cadastral maps (property/plot boundaries, e.g. 1:4000) and topographical maps (precise surveys, e.g. Survey of India sheets).
  • Small-scale maps show large areas with less detail: wall maps and atlas maps.
• By function:
  • Physical maps show natural features: relief, geological, climatic and soil maps.
  • Cultural (thematic) maps show human features: political, population, economic and transport maps.

Thematic (distribution) maps are further classified by the technique used to show the data. Four techniques are tested:

• Isopleth maps: lines join points of equal value. Isobars join points of equal atmospheric pressure, and isotherms join points of equal temperature. A daily weather map showing isobars is therefore an isopleth map.
• Choropleth maps: administrative areas (districts, states) are shaded or coloured by value, with darker shades showing higher values, as in a map of district-wise population density.
• Chorochromatic maps: different colours or tints mark out categories of a feature, such as types of forest or soil regions.
• Choroschematic maps: a small symbol is repeated across the map to show the distribution of a feature, such as a wheat symbol dotted over wheat-growing areas.

Every map, to be useful, must have three essential components:

• Distance (scale): the ratio that reduces real distances to fit the paper.
• Direction: maps are drawn with North at the top. The four cardinal directions (N, S, E, W) orient the user.
• Symbols: since real features cannot be drawn to size, they are shown by agreed signs, colours, shades and letters (explained in a legend).

Making a map (cartography) involves a series of essentials:

• choosing the scale (the first and key decision),
• selecting a projection to transform the curved surface to flat,
• generalisation: selecting and simplifying the relevant information, and
• map design: choosing symbols, lettering, colours and layout.

Maps let geographers measure distance, direction and area. Modern map-making is now transformed by computers and satellite/GIS technology.

The grid of latitudes and longitudes is the skeleton of every world map. A few reference lines on this grid are tested again and again, so their exact paths must be memorised. The Equator (0° latitude) crosses South America, Africa and South East Asia. In particular it passes through Colombia, Kenya and Indonesia, along with Ecuador, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Somalia. Among the great Asian cities, Singapore, at about 1.3°N, lies nearest to the Equator, closer than Colombo, Jakarta or Manila. Be careful with water bodies: the Equator does not touch Lake Tanganyika (which lies south of it in East Africa), Lake Tonlé Sap (a large lake in Cambodia, well north of it) or the Patos Lagoon (a coastal lagoon in southern Brazil).

The Tropic of Capricorn (23.5°S) crosses Australia, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Madagascar, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile. Note that it passes through all four of Australia, Namibia, Brazil and Chile.

Longitude governs time zones. Each 15° of longitude equals one hour. Key facts:

• GMT (UTC+0) cities: London, Lisbon and Accra all keep the same clock time on the Prime Meridian zone. Addis Ababa in Ethiopia is on UTC+3 and so never matches them.
• More than four time zones: very large or far-flung states qualify, namely Russia, the USA and France (through its overseas territories). Counting territories, New Zealand, Australia and Brazil also span more than four zones, while the United Kingdom and Denmark do not.
• International Date Line: it broadly follows the 180° meridian in the Pacific. The Bering Strait, which separates Russia from Alaska near 168°W, is the strait nearest to it.

Mountains on the world map fall into types, and examiners pair the range with its type and region. Fold mountains rise where plates compress sediments into folds: the Alps (Europe), the Andes (South America), the Appalachians (North America) and the Himalayas are fold mountains. Block mountains form when land rises between faults: the Vosges and the Black Forest, both in Europe, are block mountains. A common trap places the Vosges in Central Asia or calls the Alps block mountains, both wrong.

Volcanic mountains must be tied to their countries:

• Mount St. Helens: a stratovolcano in Washington State, USA, famous for its 1980 eruption.
• Mount Rainier: also in the USA, in the Cascade Range.
• Etna: on the island of Sicily, Italy, Europe's most active volcano.
• Paricutin: in Mexico, a volcano that grew out of a farm field in 1943.
• Taal: a low lake-filled volcano in the Philippines.

Other tested feature-country pairs: the Atlas Mountains run across north-western Africa through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The Abyssinian Plateau is in Ethiopia, not Arabia. The Guiana Highlands are in northern South America. The Okavango Basin, an inland delta, is in Botswana. The Great Victoria Desert is in Australia, the Grand Canyon (cut by the Colorado River) is in the USA, Lake Winnipeg is in Canada, and the Southern Alps are in New Zealand.

Rivers and islands complete the picture. The Mekong rises in China and flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam: it never enters Malaysia. Victoria Falls (Mosi-oa-Tunya) lies on the Zambezi river at the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Formentera) belong to Spain and sit in the western Mediterranean Sea. Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago, with more than 14,000 islands stretching about 5,000 miles from Aceh in the north-west towards the Torres Strait in the east.

Knowing which countries touch which sea is core map work. The main tested pairings:

• North Sea: bordered by Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the UK. Finland lies on the Baltic, and Russia does not touch the North Sea.
• Mediterranean Sea: in South West Asia, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Turkey open to it. Jordan does not: its only sea outlet is a short Red Sea coast at Aqaba. Iraq has no Mediterranean coast either. In Africa, Morocco borders the Mediterranean. The island nation of Malta sits in the central Mediterranean, south of Sicily.
• Red Sea: an extremely arid sea. It receives almost no rainfall and no river enters it. Eritrea, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen border it. Syria does not.
• Black Sea: bordered by Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and Turkey. Croatia does not reach it. Turkey therefore lies between the Black Sea to its north and the Mediterranean to its south.
• Adriatic Sea: bordered by Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (a tiny coastline), Montenegro and Albania. North Macedonia is landlocked.
• Caspian Sea: the world's largest lake, bordered by Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan. Armenia is landlocked and does not touch it.
• Yellow Sea: lies between China and the Korean peninsula.
• Aral Sea: in Central Asia, it has shrunk drastically because its feeder rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, were diverted for irrigation. The Black Sea and Lake Baikal have not dried up.

River mouths are tested as river and sea pairs. The Volga drains into the Caspian Sea. The Zambezi empties into the Indian Ocean through the Mozambique Channel. The Mekong ends in the South China Sea, not the Andaman Sea. The Thames flows into the North Sea, not the Irish Sea. The Huangpu River flows through Shanghai in the Yangtze delta. In Africa, Lake Victoria forms part of the international boundary between Tanzania and Uganda, and also touches Kenya.

Straits and canals are choke points worth fixing on the map. The Strait of Dover carries the Channel Tunnel that links the United Kingdom and France. The Strait of Malacca, between the Malay peninsula and Sumatra, has Singapore at its southern end. A proposed canal across the Kra Isthmus of Thailand, joining the Gulf of Siam to the Andaman Sea, would bypass Malacca and shorten the India to East Asia route. Merely deepening the Malacca Strait would not cut the distance. On the Suez Canal, Port Said sits at the northern (Mediterranean) end and the city of Suez at the southern (Red Sea) end. A ship from Mumbai bound for Suez therefore reaches the canal's entrance without passing through it, while ships to Port Said, Alexandria or Benghazi must transit the canal.

Land borders are a staple of map questions. The longest international border in the world is between Canada and the USA, about 8,891 km. Other tested border sets:

• Ukraine: among its EU neighbours, it borders Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Lithuania do not touch Ukraine.
• Moldova: borders only Ukraine and Romania. Belarus does not border it.
• Afghanistan: among the Central Asian republics, it borders Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan do not touch it.
• Myanmar: besides India and China, it borders Thailand, Laos and Bangladesh.
• Lithuania: borders Poland, Belarus, Latvia and Russia (the Kaliningrad exclave). It does not border Ukraine.
• Latvia: borders Russia, Estonia, Lithuania and Belarus. It does not border Poland.
• Panama: borders Costa Rica and Colombia, with the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea on either side. Venezuela does not border it.
• Israel: shares land borders with Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.
• Bolivia: a landlocked South American state. It lost its Pacific coast to Chile in the War of the Pacific (1879–1884). Peru, Suriname and Uruguay all have coastlines.

Region and country pairs also appear here: Mallorca belongs to Spain, Normandy is a region of France, and Sardinia is an island of Italy.

Examiners also ask for the order of cities along a direction:

• South East Asia, south to north: Jakarta, then Singapore, then Bangkok, then Hanoi.
• Delhi to Tokyo flight, west to east: Bangkok, then Hanoi, then Hong Kong, then Taipei.
• Pakistan, north to south: Peshawar, then Islamabad, then Gujranwala, then Multan.
• Former Yugoslavia, east to west: Serbia (the rump Yugoslavia), then Bosnia, then Croatia, then Slovenia.

Regions that appear in the news must be tied to the right country. Catalonia is an autonomous region of Spain. Crimea is a peninsula of Ukraine (annexed by Russia in 2014, but Ukrainian on the map). Mindanao is a large southern island of the Philippines. Oromia is a region of Ethiopia, not Nigeria.

Great cities are identified by their rivers:

• London: the Thames.
• New York: the Hudson.
• Vienna: the Danube.
• Berlin: the Spree (with the Havel), not the Rhine, which flows through western Germany.
• Washington DC: the Potomac.
• Paris: the Seine.
• Madrid: the Manzanares.
• Bangkok: the Chao Phraya (Menam).
• Phnom Penh: the Mekong.
• Hanoi: the Red River.
• Yangon: the Irrawaddy.

Well-known places and capitals carry similar traps. The Baikonur Cosmodrome, a launch site leased by Russia, lies in Kazakhstan, not Russia. Kourou, Europe's spaceport, is in French Guiana. Borobudur, a great Buddhist monument, is in Indonesia. Cannes is in France. Among Central American and Caribbean capitals: Nassau is the capital of the Bahamas, San Jose of Costa Rica, Managua of Nicaragua, Belmopan of Belize, and Santo Domingo of the Dominican Republic. For states and territories: British Columbia is a Canadian province, Bavaria a German state, Gibraltar a British Overseas Territory, and Rhode Island a state of the USA.

Forest resources are mapped to producer countries. The classic timber and country pairs:

• Cedar: Mexico.
• Douglas Fir: Canada, a conifer of its western forests.
• Mahogany: Honduras, a prized tropical hardwood.
• Teak: Myanmar, the famous hardwood of monsoon forests.

For fuelwood, wood burnt for cooking and heating, Russia has been recorded as the world's largest producer, drawing on the taiga, the largest continuous forest belt on Earth.