Since ancient times, knowing the environment and expanding the living space, a person has thought about how the world works, where he lives. Trying to explain the structure of the Earth and the Universe, he used categories that were close and understandable to him, first of all, drawing parallels with the familiar nature and the terrain in which he lived. How did people imagine the earth before? What did they think of her form and place in the universe? How did their ideas change over time? All this allows us to find out historical sources that have survived to this day.
How ancient people imagined the Earth
The first prototypes of geographical maps are known to us in the form of images left by our ancestors on the walls of caves, notches on stones and animal bones. Researchers find such sketches in different parts of the world. Similar drawings depict hunting grounds, places where game miners set traps, as well as roads.
Schematically depicting rivers, caves, mountains, forests on improvised material, a man sought to transmit information about them to subsequent generations. In order to distinguish the locality objects they already knew from the new ones that had just been discovered, people gave them names. So, gradually mankind accumulated geographical experience. And even then, our ancestors began to wonder what the Earth is.
The way the ancient people imagined the Earth, in many respects depended on the nature, topography and climate of the places where they lived. Therefore, the peoples of different corners of the planet in their own way saw the world around them, and these views differed significantly.
Babylon
Valuable historical information about how ancient people imagined the Earth was left to us by civilizations that lived on the lands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers , inhabiting the Nile Delta and the shores of the Mediterranean Sea (modern territories of Asia Minor and southern Europe). This information is more than six thousand years old.
So, the ancient Babylonians considered the Earth a "world mountain", on the western slope of which Babylonia was located - their country. This idea was facilitated by the fact that the eastern part of the lands they knew rested on high mountains, which no one dared to cross.
To the south of Babylonia was the sea. This allowed people to believe that the "world mountain" is actually round, and washed by the sea from all sides. On the sea, like an upturned bowl, rests a solid heavenly world, which is much like the earthly one. Here, too, had its own "land", "air" and "water". The role of land was played by the belt of the zodiac constellations, blocking the celestial "sea" like a dam. It was believed that the Moon, the Sun and several planets move along this firmament. The sky among the Babylonians was the residence of the gods.
The souls of dead people, on the contrary, lived in the underground "abyss". At night, the Sun, plunging into the sea, was supposed to pass through this dungeon from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, and in the morning, ascending from the sea to the firmament, again start its daily journey along it.
The basis of how people represented the Earth in Babylon was based on observations of natural phenomena. However, the Babylonians could not correctly interpret them.
Palestine
As for the inhabitants of this country, other views reigned on these lands, other than the Babylonian ones. The ancient Jews lived in a flat area. Therefore, the Earth in their vision also looked like a plain, which in some places crossed the mountains.
Winds, bringing with them either drought or rain, occupied a special place in the beliefs of the Palestinians. Inhabited in the "lower zone" of the sky, they separated the "heavenly waters" from the surface of the Earth. Water, in addition, was also underground, feeding from there all the seas and rivers on its surface.
India, Japan, China
Probably the most famous legend in our day, telling about how ancient people imagined the Earth, was composed of ancient Indians. These people believed that the Earth actually had the shape of a hemisphere, which rests on the backs of four elephants. These elephants stood on the back of a giant turtle swimming in an endless sea of milk. All these creatures were surrounded by a multitude of rings the black cobra Sheshu, who had several thousand heads. These heads, according to Indian beliefs, propped up the universe.
The land, in the view of the ancient Japanese, was limited to the territory of the islands they knew. The cubic shape was attributed to her, and the frequent earthquakes occurring in their homeland were explained by the violence of the fire-breathing dragon, living deep in its depths.
The inhabitants of ancient China were convinced that the Earth was a flat rectangle, in the corners of which four columns were placed, supporting the convex dome of heaven. Once one of the columns was bent by an angry dragon, and since then the Earth has been tilting to the east, and the sky to the west. So the Chinese explained why all the celestial bodies move from east to west, and all the rivers in their country flow east.
Aztecs and Mayans
It is interesting to know how the ancient people who inhabited the American continent represented the Earth. Thus, the Mayan people were confident that the Earth was in fact a square. The Primordial Tree grew from its center. In the corners, in strict accordance with the known cardinal points, four more similar Trees - Worlds - grew. The Eastern Tree was red, the color of the morning dawn, the northern one was white, the western one was black like night, and the southern one was yellow like the Sun.
Closely observing the movements of the celestial bodies, Mayan astronomers noticed that each of them has its own path. From this came the conclusion that each luminary moves along its "layer" of heaven. All in all, there were thirteen "heavens" in Mayan beliefs.
Another ancient people of America, the Aztecs, the Earth was seen in five squares, arranged in a checkerboard pattern. In the very center was the earthly firmament with the gods, it was surrounded by water. The remaining four sectors that make up the world had their own characteristics, colors, and were inhabited by special plants and animals.
Ancient Greeks
In the most ancient representations of the Greek population about the Earth, it is referred to as a convex disk, similar to a warrior's shield. Above it is a firmament of copper, through which the sun moves. It was believed that the land is surrounded on all sides by the river - Ocean.
Over time, the Greek vision of the Earth underwent a change. The scientist Anaximander, who lived in the fourth century BC, considered it the "center of the universe" and came to the conclusion that the constellations in the sky move in a circle.
The famous Pythagoras first expressed the idea that the Earth has the shape of a ball. And Aristarchus of Samos, who lived in Greece more than 2300 years ago, concluded that it was our planet that revolves around the Sun, and not vice versa. However, contemporaries did not believe him, and after the death of Aristarchus his discoveries were quickly forgotten.
As people represented the Earth in the Middle Ages
With the development of technology and shipbuilding, people began to travel farther and farther, expanding geographical knowledge, compiling ever more detailed maps. Gradually, evidence began to gather, allowing us to conclude about the spherical shape of the Earth. Europeans especially succeeded in this during the era of the great geographical discoveries.
About five hundred years ago, the Polish astronomer Nikolai Copernicus, observing the stars, found that the center of the Universe is precisely the Sun, and not the Earth. Almost 40 years after the death of Copernicus, his ideas were developed by the Italian Galileo Galilei. This scientist was able to prove that all the planets of the solar system, including the Earth, actually revolve around the sun. Galileo was accused of heresy and forced to renounce his teachings.
However, the Englishman Isaac Newton, born a year after the death of Galileo, subsequently managed to discover the law of gravity. Based on it, he explained why the Moon revolves around the Earth, and planets with satellites and numerous celestial bodies rotate around the Sun.