Anaximander (CA. 610–546 BC)

Anaximander (born in Miletus ca. 610 BC, died in Miletus ca. 546 BC) was a Grecian pre-Socratic philosopher who belonged to the Milesian school, whose thinkers observed natural phenomena to study and explain their rules independently of mythological belief. Only a few of his life anecdotes and works are known today; nevertheless, his contributions to geography, cartography, cosmology, and astronomy are extraordinarily important. He was the first to draw a map of the ecumene (inhabited land), and he is also said to have invented the gnomon (the part of a sundial that casts the shadow) and discovered the equinoxes, the solstices, and the inclination of the ecliptic (the plane on which the orbit of the Earth around the sun lies). He supposedly authored a work on nature that was the first philosophical text written in prose. Other works attributed to him are known nowadays under the titles Around the Earth, The Sphere, and On Fixed Bodies.

Figure 1 Re-creation of Anaximander's map

Source: Public domain.

As a result of his observations of nature, Anaximander understood the hydrologic cycle by realizing how water on the Earth's surface evaporates and consequently comes down again in the form of precipitation. He also elaborated a theory that explained how lightning and thunder are generated by the collision of clouds and how earthquakes occur when high temperatures and heavy rains cause land to split. According to his view of the universe and the Earth, the first living [Page 75]beings were aquatic and later adapted to life on the land. The seas are what still remains of primordial humidity, and they will disappear from Earth's surface when all the water evaporates because of increased solar energy. On the other hand, steam created the winds and caused the rotation of the sun and of the moon, which are both much bigger in size than our planet.

Anaximander conceived of the universe as a system of concentric blazing wheels with flames coming out through some holes and explained eclipses as being caused by the occlusion of those openings. The sun circles the nearest circle, while the stars revolve around the farthest. He considered Earth to be a cylindrical entity that hovers motionless in the universe without any support and is equidistant from other celestial bodies. Life has developed on its flat circular plane, which in the beginning was completely covered by water.

As far as cartography is concerned, Anaximander created the first map of the world by drawing three continents (Europe, Asia, and “Libya”) separated by the Black Sea, the Phasis River, the Nile, and the Mediterranean Sea. He imagined waters to surround all those lands.