What is the history of mapmaking?

Herodotus traveled very extensively, collecting information and documenting his findings in his books on Europe, Asia and Libya. He also combined his knowledge with what he learned from the people he met. Herodotus rejected the prevailing view of most 5th century maps that the earth is a circular plate surrounded by Ocean. In his map he describes the earth as an irregular shape with oceans surrounding only Asia and Africa. He introduces names such as Atlantic Sea and Erythrean Sea. He also divided the world into three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. He depicted the boundary of Europe as the line from the Pillars of Hercules through the Bosporus and the area between Caspian Sea and Indus River. And he regarded the Nile as the limit between Asia and Africa. He speculated that the extent of Europe was much greater than was assumed at the time and left Europe’s shape to be determined by future research. In the case of Africa, he believed that except for the small stretch of land in the vicinity of Suez, the continent was in fact surrounded by water. However, he definitely disagreed with his predecessors and contemporaries about its presumed circular shape. He based his theory on the story of Pharaoh Necho II, the ruler of Egypt between 609 and 594 BCE, who had sent Phoenicians to circumnavigate Africa. Apparently, it took them three years, but they certainly did prove his idea. As with Europe, this great philosopher left future researchers determine Africa’s shape. As far the Neil River, he speculated that it started as far west as the Ister River in Europe, and cut Africa through the middle. He was the first philosopher to assume that the Caspian Sea was separated from other seas and he recognised northern Scythia as one of the coldest inhabited lands in the world. He was also the first mapmaker to depict other geographical features on a map such as the Persian ‘Royal Road’ that he fully documented -- with its royal stations and superb inns -- in his work Geographica. However, like many other early maps in antiquity, Herodotus’s map also has no scale. Herodotus also made similar mistakes to his predecessors. He accepted a clear distinction between the civilized Greeks in the centre of the earth and the barbarians on the world's edges. In his Histories we can see very clearly that the world becomes stranger and stranger when one travels away from Greece, until one has reached the ends of the earth, where humans behave like savages. Herodotus wrote the Histories in the mid-400's B.C. Although, his work was dedicated to the story of the Greeks' long struggle with the Persian Empire, Herodotus also included everything he knew about the geography, history, and peoples of the world. Thus, his works provide a detailed picture of the known world of the 5th century BCE.