Greek Contribution to Geography

What is Geography?

☻Geography is the study of  relation between the society and natural environment.

☻It talks about how societies shape, alters and transform the natural environment, and it contains the natural and social interaction.

☻It is considered as a “MOTHER OF ALL SCIENCE”.

☻ Eratosthenes, an Ancient Greek Scholar first coined the term "Geography”.

PHOENICIANS

☻Before Greek, Phoenicians or Jews

☻“Old Testament”; the religious book of  Jews.

☻They occupied Asia minor (Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel).

☻They established  in these areas.

    GREEKS

•Pioneer in many branches of knowledge.

•“Golden age of Greece.”

•Astronomy- Syrian, Geometry-Chaldeans, Mathematics-Egyptians.

•Philosophical and scientific attitude, inquisitive, intellectual and comprehensive of mind.

•Mountains, coastal areas, and sky.

•Most of the civilization progressed here.

•Assyrian and Babylonia in- Evidence.

•The Greeks defined Geography as “Description of the Earth”.

HOMER

•Well known poet.

•Iliad and Odyssey.

•Earth to be a place of  circular form surrounded on all sides by the ocean river.

•The concept of “Sky”.

*Four “Winds”.

•Bores

•Eurus

•Notus

•Zephyrus

    THALES OF MILETUS

•Thinker, philosopher and traveler.

•Measurement of the earth and things on the face of the earth.

•Earth as floating in water.

HECATAEUS

•Resident of Miletus.

•Father of Geography

•Book: “Ges-period”.

•→geographical information of Europe

•→Libya (Africa+ Asia).

ANAXIMANDER (c610-546 BC)

•Pre Socratic- Greek philosopher.

•Proponent of science and different aspects of science.

•“Gnomon” in Greece.

•Father of “Cosmology” and founder of “Astronomy”.

•First to conceive the “Mechanical model of World”.

HERODOTUS(484-425BC)

•Lived in 5th century BC.

•“Father of History and Ethnography”  

•All history must be treated geographically and all geography must be treated historically.

•First “Ethnographer”.

•World in Three parts; Europe, Libya and Asia.

•Libya ;

         → Zone of Mediterranean Coast

         →Wild Beast

         →Parts of Sahara Desert.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT (356-323BC)

•Aristotle- “Go and See”.

•To establish Greek rule all over the world.

•Largest emperor of the ancient world.

•Founded the city of Alexandria.

•Contribution to historical and regional geography.

ERASTOTHENES (276-194BC)

•First scientific geographer .

•Calculated the equatorial circumference of the earth to be 40,233 kilometers using simple geometric relationships.

•Coined the term “Geography”.

•“Scale” for using to draw the world map.

•Earth is considered as a “Spherical”.

To conclude this,

•→Stages of Development

• →Theory and Methods

• →Geographical Education…….!!