A map is a symbolic representation of selected characteristics of a place, usually drawn on a flat surface. Maps present information about the world in a simple, visual way. They teach about the world by showing sizes and shapes of countries, locations of features, and distances between places. Maps can show distributions of things over Earth, such as settlement patterns. They can show exact locations of houses and streets in a city neighborhood. And there are nations that have their own territory and cultural identity but are part of a parent state entity, such as the American Indian nations of North America or the Uighurs in the autonomous region of Xinjiang, or Tibet; the former Tibetan Empire is now, not entirely voluntarily, an autonomous region of China. The intercardinal (intermediate, or, historically, ordinal [2]) directions are the four intermediate compass directions located halfway between each pair of cardinal directions. Many maps include a grid pattern, or a series of crossing lines that create squares or rectangles. The grid helps people locate places on the map. On small-scale maps, the grid is often made up of latitude and longitude lines. Latitude lines run east-west around the globe, parallel to the Equator, an imaginary line that circles the middle of Earth. Longitude lines run north-south, from pole to pole. Latitude and longitude lines are numbered. The intersection of latitude and longitude lines, called coordinates, identify the exact location of a place. Europeans explored much of the Americas during the sixteenth century, Australia in the seventeenth century, and Antarctica was finally sighted in the early nineteenth century. At this point, fairly accurate maps of the entire world were beginning to be assembled.

Historians think China may have been the first civilization to develop a magnetic compass that could be used for navigation. Chinese scientists may have developed navigational compasses as early as the 11th or 12th century. Western Europeans soon followed at the end of the 12th century. Sanskrit and other Indian languages that borrow from it use the names of the gods associated with each direction: east (Indra), southeast (Agni), south (Yama/Dharma), southwest (Nirrti), west (Varuna), northwest (Vayu), north (Kubera/Heaven) and northeast (Ishana/Shiva). North is associated with the Himalayas and heaven while the south is associated with the underworld or land of the fathers (Pitr loka). The directions are named by adding "disha" to the names of each god or entity: e.g. Indradisha (direction of Indra) or Pitrdisha (direction of the forefathers i.e. south). Brazil also has an extensive coastline stretching approximately 4,650 miles (7,491 kilometers) along the Atlantic Ocean. It includes numerous islands and archipelagos, such as Fernando de Noronha, Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, Trindade and Martim Vaz, and the Abrolhos Islands. The coastal area, interspersed with beaches, bays, and inlets, forms a significant part of Brazil's geographical identity. States of Brazil Map

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A map compass is used to determine what direction you're facing, or travelling in. The compass needle aligns itself to the top of the Earth's magnetic field. If the needle points towards the 'N' on a compass dial, then you are facing north and you can use it to help you find directions. South: Red; Summer; Fire Red River (Asia): south of China Red Ruthenia Red Jews: a semi-mythological group of Jews [ citation needed] Red Croatia Red Sea In pre-modern Europe more generally, between eight and 32 points of the compass – cardinal and intercardinal directions – were given names. These often corresponded to the directional winds of the Mediterranean Sea (for example, southeast was linked to the Sirocco, a wind from the Sahara).

Among the partially recognized states or state-like entities are Abkhazia, Kosovo, the Cook Islands, Northern Cyprus, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara), Somaliland, and Transnistria.Central Asian, Eastern European and North East Asian cultures frequently have traditions associating colors with four or five cardinal points. east ( *aus-t-) from the word for dawn. The proto-Indo-European form is * austo-s from the root * aues- 'shine (red)'. [7] See Ēostre. Meadows, Peter; meadows. "Solar Observing: Parallactic Angle". Archived from the original on 7 February 2009 . Retrieved 15 November 2013.

Twelve independent countries share the continent of South America, plus one French overseas department, French Guiana, and two dependent territories, the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (both British overseas territories). Some indigenous Australians have cardinal directions deeply embedded in their culture. For example, the Warlpiri people have a cultural philosophy deeply connected to the four cardinal directions [23] and the Guugu Yimithirr people use cardinal directions rather than relative direction even when indicating the position of an object close to their body. (For more information, see: Cultures without relative directions.) During the 15th century navigators began to understand that compass needles do not point directly to the North Pole but rather to some nearby point; in Europe, compass needles pointed slightly east of true north. To counteract this difficulty, British navigators adopted conventional meridional compasses, in which the north on the compass card and the “needle north” were the same when the ship passed a point in Cornwall, England. (The magnetic poles, however, wander in a predictable manner—in more recent centuries Europeans have found magnetic north to be west of true north—and this must be considered for navigation.) Center: Yellow; Earth Huangshan: "Yellow Mountain" in central China Huang He: "Yellow River" in central China Golden Horde: "Central Army" of the Mongols Arabic world [ edit ]

A map of the world with countries and states

majority of the countries are located, including their names, too. Zoom in and out to get a better understanding west ( *wes-t-) from a word for "evening". The proto-Indo-European form is * uestos from the root *ues- 'shine (red)', [9] itself a form of * aues-. [10] Cognate with the root are the Latin words vesper and vesta and the Ancient Greek Hestia, Hesperus and Hesperides. The directional names are routinely associated with azimuths, the angle of rotation (in degrees) in the unit circle over the horizontal plane. It is a necessary step for navigational calculations (derived from trigonometry) and for use with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. The four cardinal directions correspond to the following degrees of a compass: