Mappa mundi

A mappa mundi is a big picture of the world from a long time ago, drawn on a piece of paper or another flat surface. It's like a map that you may use to find your way around a new place, but it's more like a really old map that shows how people thought the world looked like a long time ago.

The mappa mundi is sometimes fanciful, which means it shows things that are not real or true. For example, some mappa mundi showed strange creatures like dragons or sea monsters in the oceans or in faraway lands. A mappa mundi could also show past events, such as famous stories or the locations of important historical events.

Sometimes, the mappa mundi looked like a big circle with the oceans and the landmasses all inside that circle. It was called the orbis terrae, which is Latin for “circle of the world”. This circle represented the whole world, and it was like a symbol of what the people from long ago thought the world looked like.

People from long ago made mappa mundi to show what they have explored and discovered. Even though a mappa mundi is different from maps that we use now, it's still very interesting to look at and to see how people thought of the world long ago.