Hellenistic Geography System

Timeline

1. c. -300–-250Alexandria · Hellenistic worldAfter Alexander's eastern campaigns, Greek scholars gained access to broader geographical information about Asia and Africa, and began systematically compiling trade routes, astronomical observations, and geodetic data within the scholarly environment of Ptolemaic Egypt.
2. c. -240–-194Alexandria · EgyptEratosthenes used differences in the sun's altitude at the summer solstice to calculate the earth's circumference, devised a grid of latitude and longitude, and attempted to map the known world, introducing geometric astronomy into geographical study and becoming a milestone of Hellenistic geography.
3. c. -150–1Rhodes and Asia Minor · Asia MinorHipparchus improved latitude and longitude positioning and the precision of star catalogs; Strabo, in his Geography, comprehensively described the mountains, rivers, peoples, and political configurations of Europe, Asia, and Africa, forming the most systematic tradition of regional geographical writing of the classical age.