ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Hereford Mappa Mundi

Okay kiddo, have you ever seen a really big world map before? Well, the Hereford Mappa Mundi is a really old world map from a long time ago, around 700 years ago! It's special because it's not just a normal map of the world, it's also like a picture album of lots of different stories and ideas that people believed in a long time ago.

The Hereford Mappa Mundi is made on a really big piece of parchment, which is like a special kind of paper that they used to use a long time ago. People made the map by drawing on the parchment with quills, which are like really fancy feathers that people used to write with a long time ago.

Now, if we look at the map, we can see lots of interesting things. We can see pictures of different animals like lions, elephants, and even unicorns! We can also see pictures of important people and events, like the story of Adam and Eve from the Bible.

But the most interesting thing about the Hereford Mappa Mundi is that it also shows us what people believed about the world a long time ago. For example, they believed that the earth was flat and that all the oceans around the edges of the world would fall off into space! They also believed that Jerusalem was the most important city in the world, so they put it right in the center of the map.

Overall, the Hereford Mappa Mundi is a really cool map that shows us what people believed about the world a long time ago. It's like a time capsule that helps us understand and learn about history, even from when people thought the earth was flat!
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