Introduction
Geodesy and cartography were scientifically approached from the 7th century B.C. Thales of Miletus calculated the distance and height of inaccessible objects using mathematical proportions. Eupalinos of Megara (6th century B.C.) manufactured a 1036-meter-long underground tunnel on Samos island to install the water supply pipe, which was simultaneously excavated from both ends. Anaximander of Miletus (610-545 B.C.) and Hecataeus of Miletus (549-472 B.C.) made a map of the world on which lands and seas were depicted. In the Hellenistic period pacers (people who would walk in order to measure a distance) and scientists with dioptras, odometers and nautical odometers measured land and sea distances accurately, while great voyagers explored the world, such as Pytheas of Marseille (ca 380-310 B.C.), who calculated England’s and Ireland’s coastline and discovered the frigid Thule (Iceland). Dicaearchus of Messina (340-290 B.C.) was the first to produce a map with a rectangular coordinate system (with equidistant architectural meshes), in which the island of Rhodes was the center of the axes and the distances were measured in stadia. Eratosthenes of Cyrene (275-194 B.C.) calculated the circumference of the Earth accurately and constructed a map with parallels and meridians, in which Alexandria was placed at the center of the axes. Hipparchus (190-120 B.C.) introduced a spherical rectangular geographical mesh of parallels and meridians, measured in degrees, using the Holy Cape of Iberia as the starting point. Marinus of Tyre (60-130 A.D.) developed the right cylindrical projection with equidistant meridians and differentiated parallels, depending on the maximum duration of the longest day. Ptolemy (85-165 A.D.) recorded the geographical coordinates of 6500 place names on his flat map of the world in degrees.