610-Circa 545 B.C.E.
Astronomer And Philosopher

Historical Record. Thought to have been a pupil of Thales, Anaximander of Miletus wrote treatises on geography, astronomy, and cosmology. However, only one sentence of his writings survives, so the writings of later scholars form the primary source of information about his discoveries. Anaximander is credited with having drawn the first map of the world. One hundred years later, the historian Herodotus found it simplistic and amusing:

It makes me smile to see how many people have made circular pictures of the earth, and how not a single one has done it sensibly! They all make the river Okeanos run around the earth as neatly as if were drawn with a compass, and make Asia and Europe equal in size!

If Anaximander's map fit this description, its shape owed less to exploration and actual measurement than to a scientific desire...