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Gerardus Mercator
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Gerardus Mercator
Smiling white woman pointing up at a vintage map, superimposed with the text Africa and the Mercator map.
Side-by-side comparison showing a globe of the Earth on the left with accurately proportioned continents, and a Mercator projection map on the right, where landmasses appear increasingly distorted and stretched near the poles, especially between 60 and 90 degrees latitude. The map highlights how the Mercator projection exaggerates the size of high-latitude regions.
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Gerardus Mercator: Media

Flemish cartographer
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Videos

Is the World's Most Popular Map Wrong?
The Mercator map distorts the size of some countries and continents.
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Images

Gerardus Mercator
Gerardus Mercator; engraving by Franz Hogenberg, 1574.
Science History Images/Alamy
Distortion caused by the Mercator projection
A globe (left) depicting Earth with no land distortion and the Mercator projection...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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