Anaximander's Map is considered by some to be the first-ever world map, and alleged versions of it have been shared across social media channels since at least 2020, from Instagram and Reddit to TikTok and Facebook.
One November 2024 post featuring the map on Facebook had received more than 36,000 reactions as of this writing. The image was also shared on Reddit that same day.
The Facebook post's caption read: "The first world map ever, created by Anaximander of Miletus (610 BC–546 BC), a Greek philosopher."
Ancient Greek philosopher Anaximander of Miletus is correctly credited with inspiring the layout of the map above. However, no surviving version of his map exists, and modern reproductions like the one above are based on historical descriptions. In other words, nobody knows exactly what the original map looked like.
Hayley Drennon, a senior research assistant at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said that while Anaximander's map is considered by some to be the oldest depiction of the world map, it is not the oldest map in the world because, technically, it doesn't exist.
"We don't have images of Anaximander's map, only descriptions of it and reproductions of what it may have looked like," Drennon explained.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) wrote that Anaximander's map has been "lost to time" but is believed to be one of the first world maps known to historians. NOAA added that the original is thought to have been created between 610 and 546 B.C.E.
Anaximander's map was expanded and corrected by a fellow Milesian, Ancient Greek historian and geographer Hecataeus. An example of Hecataeus' map can be viewed in the 1901 book, Cram's Atlas of the Modern World.
According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), ancient Greek historian Herodotus described Anaximander's map, and modern reconstructions are based on these descriptions.
However, NOAA considers the Babylonian Map of the World as the first known world map, adding that its features show "Babylon itself, the Euphrates river, Assyria, Urartu, and several cities. The countries are surrounded by the ocean, which contains seven islands. Descriptions of all of them are given in the text on the top of the tablet, but only five are still legible."
According to The British Museum in London, the Babylonian Map is a depiction of the world carved onto a clay tablet at some point around the 6th century B.C.E. Some accounts suggest that the map was created in the 9th century B.C.E., but the museum argues that references made on the tablet indicate that it was "composed no earlier than the 9th century BC."
Encyclopedia Britannica says the Babylonian Map was "produced between the late 8th and 6th centuries BCE" and "depicts the oldest known map of the ancient world."