How would we travel without maps? It would be a bit adventurous (冒险的) to set off from Oxford University to go to London Bridge if there was not a map of the London Underground at each station. In fact, a lot of the early map—makers were explorers (探险家), especially in the 15th and 16th centuries.
So what did people do before there were maps? Well, it was quite easy to use natural signs like mountains and rivers if you were travelling on foot or riding a horse. People took small boats down rivers and followed coastlines (海岸线). And people world use time, not distance (距离), to measure(测量)the way they went; the next village was a three—hour ride, for example.
In fact, in the early maps, people did not draw marks. They drew stars. It was very easy to the night sky and use it for navigation (航行). The sky was a lot clearer before the light pollution from cities appeared. When towns and cities were built, people drew road maps which gave distances and directions.
The London Underground was opened in 1863 and it also used a road map style. But a man called Henry Beck realized that travelling by train was not the same as driving your car across London. Passengers only needed to know which stations to change. His new design for the Underground map was not very popular with the train companies at first. But the passengers loved it and 700,000 copies were printed in 1933.
These days, of course, you can ride a bike, drive a car or go through a forest and know where you are exactly with a GPS. It's really difficult to get lost!
