# Geography

Map of Earth with country borders and big cities shown
**Geography** (from Greek: γεωγραφία, *geographia*, literally "earth description") is the study of earth and its people. It is one of the social sciences. Its features are things like continents, seas, rivers and mountains. The 'inhabitants' of Earth are all the people and animals that live on it. Its phenomena are the things that happen like tides, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and more.

A person who is an expert in geography is called a geographer. A geographer tries to understand the world and the things that are in it, how they started and how they have changed.

There are two main parts of geography. These types are Physical geography and human geography. Physical geography studies the natural environment and human geography studies the human environment. The human environmental studies includes things such as the population in a country, how a country's economy is doing, and more. There is also environmental geography.

Maps are used in geography to see what land looks like. Geographers spend much time making maps and studying them. Making maps is called cartography, and people who specialize in making maps are called cartographers.

## Branches

### Physical geography

Physical geography (or physiography) focuses on geography as an Earth science. It tries to understand the physical problems and the issues of lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, pedosphere, and global flora and fauna (types of plants) patterns (biosphere).

**Physical geography can be divided into many broad categories, including:**

|  |  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  |  |  |  |
| Biogeography | Climatology & Meteorology | Coastal geography | Environmental management |
|  |  |  |  |
| Geodesy | Geomorphology | Glaciology | Hydrology & Hydrography |
|  |  |  |  |
| Landscape ecology | Oceanography | Pedology | Palaeogeography |
|  |  |  |  |
| Quaternary science |  |  |  |

### Human geography

A crowd of people around a band.
**Human geography** is the social science that covers the study of people and their communities, cultures, economies, and their interaction with the environment. Geographers studying the human environment may look at:

* Population
* Countries of the world
* Land use
* Agriculture
* City
* Industry
* Energy
* Pollution

## History

The oldest known world map dates back to ancient Babylon from the 9th century BC. The best known Babylonian world map is the *Imago Mundi* of 600 BC. Star charts (maps of the sky) are of a similar age.

During the Middle Ages, people in Europe made less maps. People in the eastern countries made more maps. Abū Zayd al-Balkhī created the "Balkhī school" of mapping in Baghdad.

Western Europe became known as the leader of geographic thought during the European Renaissance and The Age of Exploration (1400–1600). The printing press made maps and information about the world available to everyone. In 1650, the first edition of *Geographia Generalis* was published.

In the 1700s and 1800s, scientists started to study the relationship between the environment and its people.

## Related pages

* Geodesy
* Geographer
* Geographical renaming
* Geopolitics
* International Geographical Union
* Landform
* Map
* Navigator
* Political geography

## Other websites

* Geography Trainer 1.3 - Educational game aimed at school children Archived 2021-02-23 at the Wayback Machine
* www.geoknow.net - Geography resources at your fingertips!
* PopulationData.net Archived 2008-09-10 at the Wayback Machine
* PopulationMondiale.com Archived 2011-02-10 at the Wayback Machine
* Using Literature To Teach Geography in High Schools. ERIC Digest. Archived 2015-03-08 at the Wayback Machine
* Teaching Geography at School and Home. ERIC Digest. Archived 2015-04-26 at the Wayback Machine
* The National Geography Content Standards. ERIC Digest. Archived 2015-04-26 at the Wayback Machine