Ancient Africa Through the Lens of Cartography

Dec 11, 2025 0

Africa was one of the first continents charted by European cartographers, particularly in the northern region and along the coastal outline. The earliest cartographic depictions of Africa are found in early world maps. Some early maps, including those from Ptolemaic atlases and the map of world made by al-Idrisi in 1154, showed Africa as uncircumnavigable, prior to the voyage of Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 to the Cape of Good Hope. Other early maps of Africa show the entire continent, with some illustrations of the landscape.

Africa Ortelius 1570

Early Knowledge of Africa

The only part of Africa well known in antiquity was the coast of North Africa, described in Greek periplus from the 6th century BC. Hellenistic era geographers defined Ancient Egypt as part of Asia, taking the boundary of Asia and Egypt to lie at the Catabathmus Magnus (the escarpment of Akabah el-Kebir in western Egypt). Ptolemy's world map (2nd century) shows a reasonable awareness of the general topography of North Africa, but is unaware of anything south of the equator.

The Fra Mauro map of 1459 shows a more detailed picture of Africa as a continent, including the Cape of Diab at its southernmost point, reflecting an expedition of 1420. Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia (1545) labels the Cape of Good Hope, reached by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488, as caput bonae spei.

Notable Early Maps

Münster’s Cosmographia (1554)

“Totius Africæ tabula, & descriptio uniuersalis, etiam ultra Ptolemæi limites extensa.” Woodcut map, with added color, 26 x 35 cm. From Münster’s Cosmographia uniuersalis (Basel, 1554). The earliest obtainable map of the whole continent of Africa. Because it was issued with some variations in both of Münster’s very popular works, Geographia (1540-1552) and Cosmographia (1544-1628), the map is difficult to date precisely.

Münster was a professor of Hebrew at Heidelberg and then at Basel, where he settled in 1529 and later died of the plague. By soliciting descriptions and maps from German scholars and foreigners, he was able over time to include up-to-date information in the various editions of his atlases, becoming the most influential cartographer of the mid-16th century.

The map of Africa contains many interesting-if not curious- features: a one-eyed giant seated over Nigeria and Cameroon, representing the mythical tribe of the “Monoculi”; a dense forest located in today’s Sahara Desert; and an elephant filling southern Africa. The Niger River begins and ends in lakes. The source of the Nile lies in two lakes fed by waters from the fabled Mountains of the Moon, graphically presented as small brown mounds. Several kingdoms are noted, including that of the legendary Prester John [see Ortelius’s “Presbiteri Johannis” map in the “Central Africa” section for further discussion of him], as well as “Meroë,” the mythical tombs of the Nubian kings. Few coastal towns are noted, and there is no Madagascar yet. A simplified caravel, similar to those used by the Portuguese (and Columbus), sails off the southern coast.

One of the intriguing aspects of this map is the loop of the Senegal River, which is shown entering the ocean in today’s Gulf of Guinea. Actually, this is the true route of the Niger River, but that fact will not be confirmed until the Lander brothers’ expedition in 1830.

The text in the large cartouche offers a rudimentary itinerary for sailors from Lusitania to Calechut (Calicut, India), describing a route which essentially avoids Africa. Lusitania was a province of the Roman Empire, comprising most of modern Portugal and part of Spain.

Ortelius’s Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1584)

“Africae tabula noua.” Copperplate map, with added color, 37 x 49 cm. From Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarum (Antwerp, 1584). The standard map of Africa for the last quarter of the sixteenth century.

Ortelius lived and died in Antwerp, where he had a bookselling business. He traveled to many of the great book fairs, established contacts with literati in many countries, collected maps, and became an authority on historical cartography. In 1570, he published the Theatrum, an atlas of fifty-three maps, the first collection of uniform-sized maps depicting all the countries of the known world-the first real atlas. Each map had text on the back describing the country depicted and listing Ortelius’s sources of information. This map comes from a 1584 edition of the atlas, though it still bears the 1570 date.

Here, Africa assumes a more recognizable shape, with a more pointed southern cape. Ortelius uses the Ptolemaic sources of the Nile, two large lakes, but places them farther south. The Niger now empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The “Zanzibar” coastland is featured on the west side, as it is called (Ortelius notes) by Persian and Arab authors, but the island of Zanzibar is correctly placed off the east coast. Madagascar appears, as do the place-names of numerous towns along the coasts and in the interior, although large empty spaces begin to dominate there. No animal or plant life is indicated, but the oceans contain swordfish and a whale. Three ships in the lower right are caught in the smoke of battle. Beautifully designed and engraved, the map represents a high mark of 16th-century mapmaking.

Blaeu’s Le Theatre Dv Monde (1644)

“Africae nova descriptio.” Copperplate carte à figures map, with added color, 35 x 45 cm. From the second volume of Blaeu’s Le theatre dv monde; ov Novvel atlas contenant les chartes et descriptions de tous les païs de la terre (Amsterdam, 1644). Gift of J. Monroe Thorington, Class of 1915. One of the most decorative and popular of all early maps of Africa, from the “golden age” of Dutch mapmaking.

First issued in 1630, the map was reprinted many times between 1631 and 1667, appearing in Latin, French, German, Dutch, and Spanish editions of Blaeu’s atlases. In the format called carte à figures, this appealing map contains oval views of, presumably, the major cities and trading ports of Africa at the time: Tangier and Ceuta (Morocco), Tunis (Tunisia), Alexandria and Cairo (Egypt), Mozambique (seaport of Mozambique), Elmina (Ghana, site of the largest and most spectacular castle in Africa built by the Portuguese), and Grand Canary (Canary Islands)

Side panels depict costumed natives from areas visited along the coasts. The interior is decorated with exotic animals (lions, elephants, ostriches), which were (and still are) a major source of fascination for the public. The Nile (today’s White Nile) is shown flowing from the Ptolemaic lakes of Zaire and Zaflan. Flying fish and strange sea creatures cavort in the oceans, and the sailing ships all bear Dutch flags.

Read also: Amazing Facts About Africa

Probably the most interesting cartographic feature is the identification of specific large territories or kingdoms, which have been outlined in color, including a huge Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Monomotapa (all of southern Africa).

Moll’s Map of Africa (1736)

Moll, Herman, d. “To the Right Honourable Charles, Earl of Peterborow and Monmouth, &c This Map of Africa . . . Is Most Humbly Dedicated.” Copperplate map, with added color, 56 x 94 cm. A large decorative map by a German-born English mapmaker known for a number of influential maps, including the “Beaver Map” of North America.

The dedicatee, Charles Mordaunt (1658-1735), was a nobleman and military leader, commander of the English campaign in Spain in 1705. One of the characteristics of a Moll map is the textual chattiness. He shows the best course for sailing from Great Britain to the East Indies “in the spring and fall” (follow the dots), as well as the general directions of winds and the months in which they prevail. Grain, Ivory, Gold, and Slave coasts are clearly identified for commercial interests.

In Moll’s construction, the Niger originates in Borno Lake, possibly a reference to today’s Lake Chad. The sources of the Blue Nile are evident, but the White Nile is completely absent. The Mountains of the Moon (here, “Luna Mountains”) form the southern boundary of a vast Ethiopia, a country that is “wholly Unknown to the Europeans.” Many of Moll’s territories are different from Blaeu’s in shape and scope.

As if to promote an English presence on the continent and to show that it can be protected, the map includes insets of several English forts as well as an attractive “prospect” (with a key) of the Cape of Good Hope.

Hase’s Map of Africa

“Africa secundum legitimas projectionis stereographicae regulas et juxta recentissimas relationes et observationes in subsidium vocatis quoque veterum Leonis Africani. . . .” Copperplate map, with added color, 45 x 57 cm.

Hase became a professor of mathematics at Wittenberg in 1719 and worked for the heirs of the great German cartographer Johann Baptiste Homann (“Homann Heirs” as the map publishing firm was known) beginning in the 1730s. In his map of Africa, “according to the most recent reports and observations,” Hase identifies several territories or kingdoms but not all have been accentuated by the colorist [see the dotted lines].

Ultimately, it is the cartouche area of Hase’s map that captures the viewer’s attention. A discussion (interview?) takes place between European traders, one in a chair, and a local chief or king, seated on the back of a kneeling supplicant on an ornate mat or rug. A view of Table Bay and Cape Town, with its distinctive Table Mountain, at the Cape of Good Hope provides background. A lion family, tortoise, crocodile, and snake populate the foreground, while elephant tusks and various birds decorate the title box.

Clouet’s School Map (1787)

Clouet, J. B. L. (Jean-Baptiste Louis), b. “Lacs, fleuves, rivières et principales montages. de l’Afrique.” Copperplate map, with added color, 31 x 35 cm., with side panels of text on larger sheet. From Clouet’s Géographie moderne avec une introduction (Paris, 1787). Gift of John Delaney.

A bare-bones school map of the geographic features of Africa as known toward the end of the eighteenth century. Abbé Clouet was a member of the Académie des Sciences of Rouen, and his map suggests what French schoolchildren might have been taught about Africa just before the French Revolution. In his less-is-more approach, he has attempted to remove fictitious and/or inaccurate elements in favor of a few known, inherited geographic facts, though even some of those are rather weak. He has also eliminated the clutter of surrounding islands.

The text in the side panels is actually engraved, not printed with type. Clouet devotes the left side to a discussion of the Nile, its sources and significance, making reference to the opinion of the great French cartographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville (1697-1782). D’Anville jetté des doutes (“threw doubts”) on the discovery of Nile sources in the mountains of Ethiopia, which the Portuguese missionaries Pedro Páez (1564-1622) and Jerónimo Lobo (1596?-1678) had confirmed in the seventeenth century; rather, he preferred l’ancienne opinion which favored the Mountains of the Moon. Clouet labels the Ethiopian source as the moderne one, though he also shows the White Nile flowing from the Montagnes de la Lune.

In the right-hand panel, among his descriptions of other rivers, Clouet states that the Niger flows to the east. (Ten years later Mungo Park would prove that it does flow east, but then bends south.) He hopes that one day all confusion about the relationship between the Gambia and Senegal rivers will be resolved.

Cary’s Map of Africa (1808)

Cary, John, ca. “A New Map of Africa from the Latest Authorities.” Copperplate map, with added color, 45 x 51 cm. From Cary’s New Universal Atlas (London, 1808).

A turn-of-the-century no-nonsense British map that clearly presents the geographical gaps that will consume the attention of explorers, the majority of them British, for the rest of the century. From his business in the Strand in London, Cary developed a reputation for creating beautifully printed, clean-looking and accurate maps that presented only the most recent geographical information. His “General Map” (1794) of the British Isles was the first to use Greenwich as the prime meridian, which is the standard observed today.

In this map of Africa, the Mountains of the Moon are shown to be a continuation of the Mountains of Kong. (An area of the Ivory Coast, Kong was a prominent kingdom in the eighteenth century.) They appear as a formidable barrier to the rest of the continent. [See the discussion of the Mountains of Kong in the “Central Africa” section.] The sources of today’s Blue Nile, firmly established by James Bruce in his travels in the 1770s, are noted; the White Nile appears to gather itself from foothill streams of the lunar mountains.

Caravan routes cross the Sahara, but no European has used them yet to reach Tombouctou (Timbuktu).

Tallis’s Map (1851)

“Africa.” Steel engraved map, with some added color, 22 x 30 cm., with five vignettes. From Tallis’s The Illustrated Atlas, and Modern History of the World, Geographical, Political Commercial & Statistical, edited by R. Montgomery Martin (London, 1851). Issued to coincide with the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, Tallis’s atlas was regarded as a tour-de-force of the mapmaker’s art, scientific in intent but visually attractive: one of the most decorative atlases of the nineteenth century.

The maps were drawn and engraved by John Rapkin, and the vignettes were created and engraved by various prominent artist-illustrators. More than five-sixths of the region are still unknown to European geographers. . . . Of the alleged Mountains of the Moon we know nothing. Vast sandy wastes with occasional green and habitable spots characterize Africa. . . . The chief streams of which we have any definite and accredited account are the Nile, Niger, Joliba, Senegal, Gambia, Congo, Orange, Quilimane and the Haines. The Nile rises in Abyssinia and enters the Mediterranean at Rosetta. The Niger has its source in the Kong Mountains and enters the Atlantic after 1,660 miles. Charting its course has cost many British lives. . .

Between the time of this and Cary’s map, British explorers have crossed the Sahara, descended the Niger to its outlet in the Gulf of Guinea, and visited large areas of west and southern Africa. Not surprisingly then, the map’s vignettes show an Algerian family, a Bedouin Arabs’ desert encampment, two different Hottentot tribes (Bosjeman and Korranna) of southern Africa, and a view of the island of St. Helena.

Levasseur’s Map (1852)

“Afrique.” Steel engraved map, with some added color, 21 x 23 cm., set within a larger pictorial framework. From Levasseur’s Atlas national illustré des 86 départements et des possessions de la France (Paris, 1852). First published in 1845, this map underwent little change in subsequent editions through 1869. An interesting contrast to the preceding English map of the same period, this French version appears subordinate to its surrounding pictorial (and political) representations.

For its date, the map’s geographical detail is poor and rather limited. The decorations, however, are intriguing and revealing. The hot African sun reigns over the continent. On the right, a French military officer is showing an armed Arab a map or other document (a surrender document?), while French soldiers and Arab horsemen look on. Seated above them on a shelf is a turbaned Muslim holding a tablet lettered CORAN (Koran). Along the bottom is a display of fruit, foliage, and animals, including small oval views of Alexandria, Cairo, and Algiers.

An African woman, with lions at her feet and a camel and ostrich at her side, is seated on the left. An obelisk and pyramid (bearing current population statistics) recall ancient history. The French text notes that the descendants of Cham, one of Noah’s sons, spread through the continent, first in Egypt and Libya, and that Algeria (recently conquise by the French) will have a glorious future.

Andriveau-Goujon’s Map (1856)

“Carte générale de l’Afrique, d’après les dernières découvertes.” Steel engraved map, with some added color, 58 x 85 cm. Probably issued in Andriveau-Goujon’s Atlas classique et universel de géographie ancienne et moderne . . . (Paris, 1856).

Andriveau-Goujon, E. “Carte générale de l’Afrique, d’après les dernières découvertes.” Steel engraved map, with some added color, 59 x 86 cm., mounted on linen. The quarter century gap between the dates of these two maps was probably the most productive period for African exploration in the history of the continent. The geographic gains from the expeditions of David Livingstone (southern), Sir Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke (lake region) are evident.

Indigenous Cartography

A notable indigenous map was devised by Ibrahim Njoya, king of the Bamum kingdom, completed around 1920. Njoya deployed surveyors to map his kingdom who used methods such as timing their walks to measure distances and collecting information from locals.

Maps of Liberia, 1830-1870

The only collection related specifically to Africa comprises maps acquired with the records of the American Colonization Society (ACS), an organization that assisted Black Americans in settling in Liberia during the nineteenth century. This movement was proposed at the time as a solution to the perceived problem of free African Americans living in the United States after the Revolutionary War. The high number of slaveholding members in the ACS raised suspicion regarding the society's motives, as well as the willingness of its participants, some of whom were given the choice of emigration or continued enslavement.

The collection, Maps of Liberia, 1830-1870, includes maps of early settlements and indigenous political districts. It also contains a map thought to be by Benjamin Anderson, the Black American explorer. Anderson traveled to the interior of Liberia along the Saint Paul River in 1868 and published a report of his notes on the local culture and natural resources.

Map of Liberia

The Ancient World Mapping Center

The Ancient World Mapping Center is an interdisciplinary research center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Center invites inquiries from scholars, authors, educators, students, and members of the public engaged in (or contemplating) projects related to cartography, historical geography, and GIS in the context of ancient studies. AWMC continues the work of the Classical Atlas Project that produced the landmark Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (R. J. A. Talbert ed., 2000).

With the publication of the print edition of the atlas in 2000, the Center began its work as an institute devoted not only to the continuation of the work of the atlas itself, but also to the advancement of a research agenda focused on the geography of the ancient Mediterranean world. To ensure long-term funding of its mission, the Center secured a National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant in 2001. Together with the Endowment itself, contributions were made by the Barrington, Gladys Krieble Delmas, Samuel H. Kress and Stavros S. Niarchos foundations, as well as by many individuals.

Here's a table summarizing some of the key maps discussed:

Map	Cartographer	Year	Key Features
Cosmographia	Sebastian Münster	1554	Mythical creatures, early depiction of the Niger River
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum	Abraham Ortelius	1584	More recognizable shape of Africa, Zanzibar coastland
Le Theatre Dv Monde	Blaeu	1644	Decorative, includes views of major cities
Map of Africa	Herman Moll	1736	Textual descriptions, identifies Grain, Ivory, Gold, and Slave Coasts
A New Map of Africa	John Cary	1808	Presents geographical gaps, shows Mountains of the Moon
The Illustrated Atlas	John Tallis	1851	Vignettes of African life
Atlas national illustré	Levasseur	1852	French political representations
Carte générale de l’Afrique	Andriveau-Goujon	1856	Reflects gains from expeditions of Livingstone, Burton, and Speke