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Here Eratosthenes described his famous story of the well in Syene, wherein at noon each summer solstice, the Sun's rays shone straight down into the city-center well. [22] This book would now be considered a text on mathematical geography. His third book of the Geography contained political geography. He cited countries and used parallel lines ...
In more recent developments, geography has become a distinct academic discipline. 'Geography' derives from the Greek γεωγραφία – geographia, [1] literally "Earth-writing", that is, description or writing about the Earth. The first person to use the word geography was Eratosthenes (276–194 BC).
Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of Earth and its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but also how they have changed and come to be. While geography is specific to Earth, many concepts can be applied more broadly to other celestial bodies in the field of planetary science. [2]
Eratosthenes (c. 276–194 BC) Scymnus (fl. 180s BC) Hipparchus (c. 190–120 BC) Agatharchides (2nd century BC) Posidonius (c. 135–51 BC) Pseudo-Scymnus (c. 90 BC) Diodorus Siculus (c. 90–30 BC) Alexander Polyhistor (1st century BC) Roman Empire period 15th century reconstruction of Ptolemy's map. Periplus of the Erythraean Sea; Strabo (63 ...
1883 reconstruction of Eratosthenes' map [9] Eratosthenes (276–194 BCE) drew an improved world map, incorporating information from the campaigns of Alexander the Great and his successors. Asia became wider, reflecting the new understanding of the actual size of the continent. Eratosthenes was also the first geographer to incorporate parallels ...
Geography (from Ancient Greek γεωγραφία geōgraphía; combining gê 'Earth' and gráphō 'write') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of Earth and its human and natural complexities —not merely where objects are, but also how ...
Eratosthenes argued that accurate mapping, even if in two dimensions only, depends upon the establishment of accurate linear measurements. He was the first to calculate the Earth's circumference (within 0.5 percent accuracy). [ 28 ]
Furthermore, the fact that Eratosthenes's measure corresponds precisely to 252,000 stadia might be intentional, since it is a number that can be divided by all natural numbers from 1 to 10: some historians believe that Eratosthenes changed from the 250,000 value written by Cleomedes to this new value to simplify calculations; [27] other ...