Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The Mercator map, created ...

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our ...

Mercator: The Man who Mapped the Planet Nicholas Crane Weidenfeld & Nicholson £20, pp348 When Gerard Mercator was born in 1512, the geography of the globe was sparsely known. It was not clear whether ...

In classrooms, offices, and libraries across the United States, one world map appears again and again: the Mercator projection. Its familiarity makes it feel authoritative, even though it was never ...

Google has today celebrated the birthday of Gerard Mercator, a 16th century cartographer, with a Doodle on its homepage. The Flemish map-maker is behind one of the most influential depictions of the ...

The African Union is championing a drive to replace the 16th-century Mercator world map, arguing its widespread use by governments and international bodies inaccurately depicts Africa's true scale.

"On classroom walls from Lagos to London", the standard map of the world depicts an "inflated Britain at the centre" and a dramatically "shrunken Africa", said The Times. But this could soon change.