Web maps show old views of Africa

Web maps show old views of Africa - BBC News, 11 January, 2007

"A collection of rare maps of Africa, dating from 1530 to 1915, has been made freely available on the internet by Northwestern University in the US.

Curator David Easterbrook says the antique maps not only show the growing geographical knowledge of Africa but the progression of colonisation.

'Early cartographers had not visited or surveyed the land, so they had to do their best guesswork,' he told the BBC.

All of the 113 maps can be examined in detail on the site or downloaded."