r/geography • u/NFoley1001 • 6h ago
Discussion What is the most misleading thing on a normal world map?
My two starters:
Mercator. Greenland looks like it could swallow Africa, when Africa is actually about 14 times bigger, roughly 30 million km2 against Greenland's 2.2 million. Africa is big enough to fit the US, China, India and most of Europe inside it at once, and the standard classroom map hides that completely.
And the quieter one: north being up is just a convention. Nothing about the planet says Europe belongs at the top, flipping the map changes nothing except how wrong it feels.
What is yours? Bonus points if it is something other than Mercator, that one has had enough attention.