Program Description

The epic tale of mapping the globe.

"Explores the history of mapmaking with elegance and intelligence" –The New York Times

How do we see the world? Some ancients believed it rode on the back of a turtle. The Greeks viewed it as a sphere and measured it with astonishing accuracy. Today, scientists monitor it from space, detecting complex climate patterns that threaten our survival.

Narrated by Patrick Stewart (X-Men, Star Trek: The Next Generation), this fascinating six-part series traces the history of mapmaking from crude clay tablets to sophisticated electronic screens. Internationally respected historians, NASA scientists, and other experts explain how humans rely on imagination, observation, and mathematics to create pictures that make sense of our world. Throughout history, maps have served as symbols of wealth and power, tools of conquest and subjugation, and instruments for saving lives. They once held information worth killing for, but now they offer clues that might avert global destruction.

Award-winning actor Patrick Stewart narrates this acclaimed series, produced in consultation with the British Library and Royal Geographical Society–the world's largest scholarly organization dedicated to the science of geography.

BONUS FEATURES

• Viewer's guide includes highlights, questions to consider, avenues for further learning, "How the Ancients Did It," "Tools of the Mapmaker's Trade," "The Math Behind a Map," and "Myths on Maps"
• "The Chartbusters": bios of people who made breakthroughs in cartography
• Text interview with Patrick Stewart and biographies of Stewart and series editor Simon Berthon
• Exclusive web extras