Unfortunately only spaceships navigate through the stars, there aren't many yellow brick roads around, and cars aren't preprogrammed with directions to Grandfather's house. Instead we count on people like Will Fontanez to tell us how to get where we want to go. Will manages the Cartographic Services Laboratory at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Cartographers make maps.
According to The Software Toolworks Multimedia Encyclopedia, the earliest known map was drawn on a small clay tablet in the 3rd millennium BC by the Sumerians. Early Egyptians drew maps to show property lines because the Nile River flooded the area every year and washed away the land markers. Pirates used maps to find buried treasure. For example, when Tennessee had record-setting rainfalls in March 1994, many areas flooded and unsafe roads were closed. Like the early Egyptians when the Nile flooded, the National Park Service asked Will to draw new maps so visitors could navigate around closed roads in the Smoky Mountains National Park.