Alexander the Great
(356 - 323 BC)
(356 - 323 BC)
Alexander the Great’s conquests across Southwest Asia and North Africa exposed the
Greeks to many new lands and peoples. The Greeks naturally took great interest in documenting and
describing these many new discoveries, which formed the basis for what we now call "descriptive"
geography
Eratosthenes
(276 - 194 BC)
(276 - 194 BC)
Eratosthenes was a Greek mathematician and scholar who first used the term "geography. "
He served as the head of the famous library at Alexandria, Egypt, and is also credited with being the
first person to make an accurate calculation of the circumference of the earth in 247 B.C.
Muhammad al-Idrisi
(1100 - 1165 AD)
(1100 - 1165 AD)
Muhammad al-Idrisi was a famous Arab geographer and cartographer from Morocco who
travelled extensively throughout North Africa and Europe. He created the Tabula Rogeriana, one of the
most advanced medieval world maps, used by explorers like Christopher Columbusand Vasco Da Gama for
their world voyages of exploration and discovery.
