Babylonian Map of the World

AntiquityCuneiform
OriginBabylon
Language or scriptCuneiform
Holding institutionBritish Museum, London

Overview

A clay tablet from the 6th century BCE bearing the oldest known map of the world, with Babylon at the center, the Euphrates, surrounding cities, and a bitter ocean ring. Cuneiform labels name distant regions, some mythical. Acquired from Sippar, it shows how Babylonians conceived the cosmos.

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