Why does Greenland look much larger than it really is on many world maps?

Greenland appears disproportionately large on many world maps due to the use of the Mercator projection, a cylindrical map projection introduced in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator.12

While this projection is highly effective for navigation charts because it allows navigators to plot straight-line courses of constant bearing, it inherently distorts the size of landmasses. Specifically, the Mercator projection exaggerates the scale of areas as they move further away from the Equator.123

Because Greenland is located far to the north, this distortion makes it appear comparable in size to the entire continent of Africa or larger than South America. In reality, Greenland has a total area of approximately 836,330 square miles (2,166,086 square kilometers), making it roughly the size of the Arabian Peninsula or Saudi Arabia.123