If you said the North Pole, you probably wouldn’t be alone. Strictly speaking, ... Mercator’s world map, from 1569, was almost certainly a defining moment in north-up map-making.

The Septentrionalium Terrarum, completed in 1606 by Gerard Mercator (of projection fame), presents the North Pole as an enormous mountain surrounded on all sides by sea and four giant land masses.

I have always loved geometrical things. As a kid I was fascinated by map projections. When I was 14, I made a painted globe of Mars based on a flat Mercator Mars map by the astronomer E. M. Antoniadi.

It’s especially problematic given that the first world maps based on the Mercator projection were produced by European colonialists. ... An alternative is to place the North Pole in the centre.

Due to the above inaccuracies, Mercator’s map makes Europe and North America seem far larger than they are, ... entitled Blue Marble, showed the South Pole at the top, rather than the bottom, ...

For instance, the Mercator projection preserves the shape of countries while distorting the size, especially near the north and south pole. Tissot These circles are all the same size on the globe.