Cartography and Maps of Ancient Iran

The world’s oldest known topographical map is a Babylonian clay tablet dating from about 2300 BC, showing a region between the Zagros Mountains and the hills running through Kirkuk in Iraq. Maps put the environment in front of our eyes similar to how nature does. The map, like music and mathematics, has a global character and employs international signs. Nothing depicts the Earth as one single entity more clearly than a terrestrial globe, or a world map. The three dimensional relief maps make high mountains and lowlands quite visible while a series of maps of the same place, or geographical feature, drawn in different times combine geography and history, making ‘historical geography’. Maps help us to acquire a better understanding of our environment and the necessity and importance of preserving it. In connection with society as a whole and the projects related to population, immigration, refugees, etc., maps have always proved to be immensely useful. In connection with politics and propaganda, the large-size wall maps conveyed a message of status and power. Sometimes, maps depicted the ruler’s political aims as reality in order to provide a suitable setting for his later actions. Although the nature of cartography is scientific, it has architectural and artistic aspects as well. Many old maps have been adorned with mythical images which make them objects of art. For reading and understanding a map correctly, one needs a specific knowledge which can be learned by taking a related course or obtained over time by viewing them repeatedly. Occasionally, maps have been misused for transferring defective or false information to viewers. In different ways, early maps of a country are potent symbols of national and cultural identity of those living in that region.