All maps are misleading. You may have heard this before, but it is true. Real-world maps are far from accurate:
You see, no matter how legitimate or official they may seem, all maps contain some level of obfuscation:
“You can’t get away from distortion in mapping. Ordinary maps themselves distort reality. You cannot draw a map without showing a certain bias — what kind of map would it be otherwise?
While distortion may or may not be a problem depending on the particular goal in using the map, the need to represent a sphere on a flat surface leads almost inexorably to gross simplification.
Maps, therefore, should show illustrative symbols that encapsulate more meaning than is legibly spelled out in words.”
Professor Mark Monmonier
What this means is that all World Maps are wrong!
This goes beyond the fact planet Earth is three-dimensional and paper is two-dimensional.
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All Maps Are Wrong According To Political Borders
Political borders are among the most delicate and sensitive of all territorial scuffles. As with most forms of conflict, not all sides are willing to negotiate where their territorial boundaries go.
Since there is no global consensus about what constitutes such regions, maps often result in controversy as they fail to clarify this complicated matter.
Israel and Palestine
Palestine doesn’t exist anymore in Google Maps and Apple Maps.
Moreover, one disputed territory is Israel and Palestine. At their core, the people representing these two lands are both fighting for autonomy while disagreeing over land rights.
The result is a complicated maze of territorial disputes not yet settled by political officials, making it a nightmare for mapmakers to include the part in the territory of which country.
Kashmir Borders
Kashmir is well-known for being an area of conflict between India and Pakistan. It’s one of the most hotly debated topics surrounding Kashmir.
But it’s important to mention that the disagreement goes beyond just these two nations:
China has been engaging in aggression and provocations by feeling out the limits of its power, both in this region and with India’s borders as a whole.
Therefore, any attempts at making a map are guaranteed to end up provoking controversy. Because countries have disagreed not only about how to define physical boundaries but about what factors best determine which ethnic group should get control over a specific territory.
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Other Issues That Makes The World Maps Wrong
Problems with geographical maps are not just limited to political disagreements. There are several other instances where conflicts may arise.
Conformal Map
The Conformal World map presents a very inaccurate image of the size and shape of Africa. You’ll notice that Greenland appears to be much larger than Africa, which just isn’t true, considering that Africa is 13 times the size!
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Goode Homolosine Map
All maps have certain features that make them useful, but by the same token, they emphasize certain features and alter other features of the areas being mapped.
The Goode Homolosine map, for instance, makes the correct shape and proportions of continents more evident to the eye. However, this map does not include all land masses and waters – for it is impossible for a flat piece of paper to accurately depict both continents and water terrain to scale.
Hence, it proved that all maps are forced to choose how they want to portray different areas, such as land or water, which makes them wrong.