Did you know that most world maps we see every day, from school classrooms to websites like Google Maps (on mobile), use a map projection created in the 16th century? This projection, the Mercator projection, was designed for a very specific purpose: navigation at sea.
The Mercator projection was created in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator, a Flemish cartographer. His goal was to create a map where a straight line would represent a constant compass bearing, making it incredibly useful for sailors.
To achieve this, Mercator had to “unwrap” the spherical Earth onto a flat, rectangular surface. This process caused a major side effect—distortion. Areas further from the equator are stretched out, making them appear much larger than they are in reality.
For centuries, the Mercator map’s distortion has shaped our perception of the world. Africa is the world’s second-largest continent, with a total area of about 30.37 million square kilometers (11.7 million square miles). It is so vast that you can fit the United States, China, India, Japan, and most of Europe inside Africa’s borders. However, the Mercator map makes Greenland and Africa appear to be roughly the same size. But in reality, Africa is approximately 14 to 15 times larger than Greenland. The Democratic Republic of the Congo alone is about the same size as Greenland.
In recent years, cartographers and organizations, including the African Union, have advocated for the use of “equal-area” maps, such as the Equal Earth projection. These alternative maps show the continents in their true proportions, offering a more accurate and balanced view of the planet.
