MapQuestions

Babylonian clay tablet map, 6th Century BCE

The oldest known world map is 2,500 years old. It was found near modern-day Baghdad and, not surprisingly, places Babylon at its center. Today, most Google Earth users look up their home addresses first. It just makes sense that, though we all know now that it doesn't, we still somehow feel that the Earth revolves around us. Which begs the first question: How objective are maps? Certainly more so now, especially with modern technology, but subjective irregularities remain. Some areas, for example, are less well mapped than others. And even with that modern technology, how up-to-date are our maps? "The very moment you build a perfect map of the world is the moment it goes out of date," says Google Maps' Manik Gupta. The natural process, like changing coastlines and erosion, and human activity, like artificial islands and leveled mountains, mean that our maps can never be 100 percent accurate: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141127-the-last-unmapped-places