I roughly know how world maps were created, but detailed local maps of towns and forest’s are something I find interesting. What methods were used to scale down in world, to paper distances?
I roughly know how world maps were created, but detailed local maps of towns and forest’s are something I find interesting. What methods were used to scale down in world, to paper distances?
A lot of others have already mentioned the use of trigonometry. I would like to add that, often times, the position of the Sun, stars, etc. were used for navigation. I would imagine their positions would be useful to judge large distances. And many times, map makers asked those living in the area about regions they themselves have not explored in great detail. Lots of maps are also an amalgamation of many other maps, so although it is unlikely one person explored vast swaths of forest by themselves, it is more likely that different parts of it came from different people, including locals.
p.s. Eratosthenes, an ancient Greek polymath from 200 BCE ish (!!), measured the circumference of the Earth to a remarkable accuracy simply by using shadows of a vertical rod cast by the Sun. It’s kind of insane how people were able to do all this without the assistance of modern technology.