Timeline of Cartography By katewsms 6700 BCE Map of Catal Hyuk 3000 BCE Babylonian Clay Tablets 3000 BCE First Map of the Moon 600 BCE Map of Babylonian Empire 600 BCE Pythagoras Determines Earth is a Sphere 200 BCE Eratosthenes Determines Circumference of Earth and Establishes Coordinate Grid 150 BCE Hipparchus Creates Early System of Latitude Based on the Sun 150 Ptolemy Creates World Map with Coordinates for 8,000 Locations 476 Roman Empire Collapses and Scientific Cartography Halts in Europe 830 Al-Khwarizmi Produces World Map Partly Based on Ptolemy's Work 1030 Al-Biruni Develops Triangulation 1375 Abraham Cresques Produces World Map Using Portolan Maps 1569 Gerardus Mercator Publishes His First Projection for Navigation 1730 The Sextant is Developed 1763 John Harrison Develops Accurate Clock for Determining Longitude at Sea 1884 International Meridian Conference Chooses Greenwich as the Prime Meridian 1990 High-Quality Maps Produced from Aerial and Satellite Imagery and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 1994 Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are Completed 2000 More Than 80 Percent of the Earth's Surface Mapped in Less Than Ten Days with Radar
