Since ancient times, knowing where there is water, fruit-bearing trees, or a safe refuge could prove crucial for life or death. No society has managed to survive or develop without some sort of map, even if only mental, of its environment.

And the depiction of this mental map with signs gave rise to the birth of cartography. Edward Dalmao, a cartographer himself, attempts to document with evidence the origins of cartography, following the path of its pioneers, whose thoughts shaped the world as we know it today.

Through this narrative, enriched by various examples that impress with their antiquity, rarity, and richness – Polynesian navigational charts, Babylonian tablets, routes etched in stone – the book The Maps That Changed the World offers us a unique opportunity to decipher the secret and most mysterious maps of the Earth.

Edward Dalmao's book is a piece of history that reveals how, grain by grain, stone by stone, the foundations of our civilization were laid.