world map: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

Sep. 22, 2026

Facts

Also Known As	global map

Photos and Videos

World map showing the borders of countries and the names of continents and major oceans.

Fragmented clay tablet featuring a circular map with cuneiform inscriptions above and within the map, known as the Babylonian Map of the World, 6th century BC.

Ptolemy's world map

Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 world map

Abraham Ortelius's map of the world from 1570.

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.

World map displaying all continents labeled in bold text-North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania, and Antarctica-along with major oceans and several seas, such as the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Southern Oceans, and the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Caspian Seas. Latitude lines including the Equator, Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, and the Antarctic Circle are also marked.

World map showing the names of continents and major oceans.

World map with continents labeled and shaded areas in the surrounding oceans representing the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of coastal countries, indicating maritime regions where nations have special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources.

A world map uses color bands to show the age of Earth's oceanic crust in millions of years, with red marking the youngest crust along mid-ocean ridges and blue representing the oldest crust farther from spreading centers.

Watch Earth's Continents Move

Observe the density of lightning flashes in a typical year with its highest rate in South America, Africa, and Australasia

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Topics

A Timeline of the World in 8 Maps World Geography Quiz Earth ocean longitude latitude and longitude spherical Earth continent globe projection Map of Germany Why Does Greenland Look So Big on Some Maps?Map of India Map of the United States Map of Africa navigation chart The colonization of Africa: An interactive map Weather map Map of Europe Map of South America

Key People

Aaron Arrowsmith, engraving by T.A. Dean after a portrait by H.W. Pickersgill

Aaron Arrowsmith

British geographer and cartographer