What is a map?
A map is a birds eye picture of the ground drawn to scale. As a picture it may be a bit of a disapointment because it does not show everything that a bird would see, the flowers and animals, the cars on the road or the people rushing to work. Instead it only shows the key, important details like the roads, buildings, rivers and bridges.

There are many different types of map, road maps, ships charts, maps for walkers, aircraft charts, world maps, country maps, streetmaps and even maps of the London Underground. Most of these maps have one thing in common they rely on scale to be useful. One exception to this is the map of the London Underground which is intentionally distorted to make it easier to understand.

Maps are really useful because they give huge amounts of information in a simple pictorial form. Learning how to use a map is a very important skill and can be great fun as well.

Looking at different editions of a map of an area can give you a pictorial history of that area and how it has developed.

Sending a map with directions to somewhere is often better than written instructions. This is because written instructions start at point A and go to point B. Whereas, on a map you can start anywhere on it and go to anywhere on it.
If you get lost on the way you can find yourself again by reading the map.
   
Using a map involves many skills, but if you learn and practice these skills you will be able to navigate anywhere, with confidence, and not be one of those people who always gets lost and doesn't know North from South.
 
This section of our website is devoted to developing the essential skills of the skilled navigator and includes the following parts: Contents