In the history of Western geography, the geography of the ancient Greeks occupies the most glorious chapter. Greece is the true birthplace of Western geography. It was the ancient Greeks who coined the word "geography" in Spanish. The word "geography" in Greek is geographein, where ge means "land" and graphein means "description". It can be seen that according to Greek, the oldest meaning of the word "geography" is "description of land". Modern English geography, French geographie, German Geographie, etc. are all derived from the Greek geographein. Greece was located in the Mediterranean region, the center of the ancient Western world. The Mediterranean Sea is a vast inland sea surrounded by the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. The wind and waves are generally calm, and there is rarely dense fog. In addition, the coast is tortuous, and there are many good harbors and anchorages, providing anchorage and shelter for ships and business travelers. There are also many large and small islands scattered in the sea, which are convenient for ships on long voyages to dock and supply supplies. Therefore, navigation activities in the Mediterranean have been very active since ancient times, and it is the birthplace of the maritime empire.
The Greeks have a long history of sailing in the Mediterranean. According to the bronzes, ceramics, armors and handicrafts excavated by archaeologists, it is proved that long before the emergence of Greek colonial activities, around the second millennium BC, Greek Mycenaean navigators had already sailed in the Mediterranean. Although the ancient Greeks sailed far less far than the Phoenicians in ancient times, they almost sailed across the Mediterranean. They left their footprints in Egypt, Syria and Phenicia; they also settled in Cyprus and Rhodes, and did business with the residents of southern Italy, Sicily and the Lipari Islands (LiPari); their ships are still in Iraq. Dalaria (Etrurie) and Spain docked.
Greek geographers have long praised Homer as the founder and founder of geography. This evaluation is obviously inappropriate. But later generations still tend to regard it as the prelude to the emergence of ancient Greek geography. The emergence of ancient Greek geography is closely related to the emergence and vigorous rise of Greek colonial activities. The two cradle that nurtured its growth were "geographical investigation" and "philosophy."
The beginning and end of Greek colonial activities is generally believed to be from 800 BC to 600 BC, which lasted for more than 200 years. Geographical expeditions brought a rich harvest of documentation. At the same time, the emergence of ancient Greek philosophical thinking enabled these rich geographical documents to be well utilized and organized and systematized. Geography and philosophy were fortunately first combined in Ionia, Greece, leading to the birth of ancient Greek geography. At that time, the Ionian region was a center where scholars gathered and academic thought was active. As a result, early ancient Greek geography was also called Ionian geography.
The founders and representatives of Ionian geography were Anaximandre and Hecatee of Miletus. The two of them are the originators of the two schools of ancient Greek geography, namely cartography and descriptive geography. As a science, ancient Greek geography first started with map compilation, and geographical description was the later stage of its development.
The Greeks’ knowledge of Asia was relatively limited to Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean coast. They were relatively unfamiliar with Asia Minor, the Persian Empire and India, and only had some general and vague concepts. The most familiar person to know about Africa is the ancient civilization Egypt. Many Greek scholars have been to Egypt and have many accounts of Egyptian customs and customs. The flooding of the Nile astonished Greek scholars, each trying to come up with his or her own explanation. The Greeks knew that Sudan lay south of Egypt and was inhabited by Ethiopians. The Mediterranean African coast west of Egypt has long been known to people, but the interior of the Sahara is still very unknown.
The Greeks made many attempts to delineate the boundaries between Asia and Europe, and between Asia and Africa. The Phase (Phase (today's Volga River)) was first used as the boundary between Europe and Asia. Later, this boundary was moved to the Tanais (today's Don River). The Nile River was unanimously chosen as the boundary between Asia and Africa, and Africa was called Libya. It can be seen that the Greeks already had the concepts of Asia, Europe and Africa and their division at that time, all of which prepared good conditions for drawing a world map. The idea of ??mapping the world originated in philosophy. It was philosophers who first tried to explain the size and shape of the earth. However, mapping quickly became the original goal of geography and was regarded as the primary mission of geographers. In the eyes of geographers at that time, maps were explanations of the earth and the world. It draws on the results of geometry and astronomy to graphically visualize the Earth's position in the universe and outline the shape of the inhabited world.
The Milesian philosopher Anaximander (610 BC-540 BC) was the first person to "dare to draw on a map the shape of the earth inhabited by humans." Therefore he is recognized as a true geographer. Anaximander was a student of the famous astronomer and geometer Thales, which enabled him to apply his rich knowledge of astronomy and geometry to map drawing.
Anaximander played a pioneering role in cartography. His contribution in this area went far beyond the world map he drew. After him, map drawing became popular. Many scholars, such as Hecate, Democritus and Eudoxe, successively drew revised and updated world maps. The maps of this period are commonly known as "Ionian maps", which refers to maps drawn mainly by the Ionians of Greece. These maps are constantly improved and innovated based on Anaximander's maps, making the geographical images of the inhabited world more complete and accurate.
About 500 BC, Aristagoras of Miletus engraved a map of the Ionian world on a copper plate and took it to the King of Sparta. ). This copper plate is engraved in great detail, showing the outlines of all the land, oceans and rivers. The various countries passed through from Milet to Suse are marked one by one. The entire map reflects the circular shape of the ocean surrounding the land - this is the unique feature of the Ionian map's understanding of the earth and the inhabited world. In addition, according to archaeological discoveries, the reverse pattern of Ionian currency in the 4th century BC is a relief map of the Ephesus region. This also proves that Greek maps at that time were items that people loved and respected. Herodotos (approximately 484 BC - 425 BC) is a famous ancient Greek historian and is known as the "Father of History". His masterpiece "History" is an important document in the treasure house of ancient history. However, researchers in the history of geography unanimously regard him as an outstanding ancient Greek geographer. In his famous book "History", the content related to geography occupies a considerable space, and he made a detailed review and summary of Ionian geography. In fact, in the era of Herodotus in the 5th century BC, there was no clear boundary between history and geography, and people did not pay attention to seeing themselves as scholars of a certain discipline.
Herodotus was born into a wealthy aristocratic family and later went into exile during political struggles. Exile marked the beginning of his career of geographical adventure. He was an outstanding traveler. His many years of travel, investigation and data collection enabled him to make significant contributions to geography. His footprints covered most of the known world at that time. He was familiar with the Mediterranean coastal areas, especially the Aegean islands and southern Italy; he visited Macedonia, Thrace, and crossed the strait into the Sea of ??Hospitality to the mouth of the Ister (now the mouth of the Danube River), and also traveled north along the In the Don Valley, he traveled through the Russian steppes; his travels also touched many places in the Persian Empire, visiting Susa and Babylon; he visited Egypt many times, and traced his way up the Nile to Elifontina ( The first waterfall near E1ephantine, present-day Aswan). In addition, he collected material on the Saharan oases and desert caravan routes.
Herodotus had the interests and qualities of a geographer. His travels have a strong flavor of geographical investigation and exploration. For example, his first trip was to the Sea of ??Hospitality. His purpose was not to investigate history, but to study how the world was divided into continents and what kind of scope and shape they had; the main purpose of his trip to Egypt was Investigating the source and flood patterns of the Nile River and the causes of the delta. Herodotus's famous work "History" not only contains rich geographical content, but also puts forward many novel and unique geographical viewpoints. When discussing the boundaries between Asia and Africa, he refused to blindly follow the traditional view of the Nile River as the boundary by his predecessors, and was the first to change the boundary between the two continents from the Nile River to the Isthmus of Suez. The basis for his proposing this new delineation reflects his keen geographical observation and comprehensive analysis ability. He pointed out brilliantly that the Nile Delta was formed by alluvial sediment from the river. "Egypt is the gift of the Nile" - this wise saying that is still passed down to this day comes from Herodotus. He believed that the same Egyptian nation lived on both sides of the Nile River. If the Nile River was used as the boundary between the two continents, it would inevitably separate the same delta and the residents on it. This is unjustifiable. These earliest discussions on geographical division lines are very insightful insights even from today's perspective. Herodotus also pointed out that the Caspian Sea was a closed sea and was not part of the northern ocean, which was more accurate than the statement circulated for centuries.
Herodotus drew nourishment from Ionian geography and at the same time made a measured commentary on it. He accepted the idea that the Earth was flat and had a fixed horizon, but discarded the old stereotype of an inhabited world surrounded by oceans and therefore a circular map.
His works made significant developments in Ionian geography, both from a descriptive and cartographic perspective. At the same time, because Herodotus's "History" has been relatively completely circulated to this day, and through his comments and summary of Ionian geography, many arguments and narratives of Ionian geography have been circulated. later generations. It is conceivable that if the book "History" is unfortunately lost, it will undoubtedly be a huge loss to history. It will leave a huge blank page in geography, especially the history of ancient Western geography, and the loss will be irreparable.
The turning point from Ionian geography to new geography - Eudoxus
The theory of the earth's sphere replaced the Ionian's flat disk view, undoubtedly It will have a broad impact on geography. The Ionian scholar Eudoxe of Creed (395-342 BC), a contemporary of Aristotle, accepted the theory of a spherical earth and created a new way to combine astronomy, geometry Science and geography are closely linked, further improving the theory of earth zoning. He pointed out that if the earth is round, then the latitude of a place can be determined based on the height of the fixed stars in the sky, and a series of lines can be drawn on the earth to represent the equator and tropical circles in the sky. and polar circles, thus dividing the earth into strips. At the same time, he learned from Egyptian priests that the alternation of seasons in the two tropics explained the Nile floods. Inspired by this, he thought that there are two hemispheres on the earth. Their climate conditions are similar, but they alternate with each other according to the movement of the sun. As a result, the theory of earth zoning has taken shape.
Eudoxus estimated the circumference of the earth. Based on the altitude difference of a certain star observed at two locations on the same meridian, he calculated that the circumference of the earth was 400,000 ancient Greek miles. The star observed was probably Canopus, which was close to the horizon in Creed and high in the sky in Egypt. However, no matter how long it was in ancient Greece, the value of 400,000 Greeks was too large. The significance of this estimation method proposed by Eudoxus far exceeds the significance of his calculated values ????itself, and inspired future generations to make accurate calculations.
Eudoxo's geographical achievement also lies in his development of descriptive geography. He is the author of a seven-volume "Description of the Earth", which is accompanied by a new map of the world compiled by the author himself. Eudoxus's description of the earth has been greatly improved in scientific quality. He believed that the inhabited world on earth corresponds to the northern and southern hemispheres, separated by a tropical zone that is not suitable for human habitation. The length of the inhabited world is twice its width. According to the concept of the ancient Greeks, length refers to the distance between the east and west ends, and width is the distance between the north and south ends. Eudoxus divided the world into three parts: Asia, Europe and Africa.
Later, Eratosthenes completed this work brilliantly.
Eratosthenes (Eratosthenes (275 BC - 193 BC)) was born in Cyrene (cyrene, in present-day Libya), a Greek colony in northern Africa. Starting from the two premises that the earth is a sphere and that sunlight travels in a straight line, two straight lines are drawn from the imaginary center of the earth to the city of Thain and Alexandria. The angle between them should be equal to the angle between the sunlight in Alexandria and the upright object. Latosthenes measured the angle to be about 7 degrees, which is one-fiftieth of the Earth's circumferential angle (360 degrees). From this, the Earth's circumference was calculated to be about 40,000 kilometers, which is the same as the actual Earth's circumference (40,076 kilometers). ) are almost the same. He also calculated that the distance between the sun and the earth is 147 million kilometers, which is surprisingly close to the actual distance of 149 million kilometers.