Honil Gangni Yeokdae Gukdo Jido world map (Gangnido)
Mapamundi Honil Gangni Yeokdae Gukdo Jido
- Date
- 1402 · confidence high
- Place
- Seoul, South Korea
- Credited to
- Kwon Kun, Yi Mu and Yi Hoe
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What it is
An East Asian world map combining Mongol-era Chinese maps with Korean and Japanese maps, showing Africa with its triangular shape and Europe. It is the oldest surviving Old World map from East Asia, though only 15th- and 16th-century copies survive.
The original is lost. Copies survive in Japan (Honkōji, Ryūkoku), from around 1500 or later. Its source maps come from Mongol-era cartographers and it does not by itself prove that Asians had sailed around Africa.
What it led to
- spread of Islamic and Mongol geography in East Asia
- Joseon cartography and Korean world maps
- debate over knowledge of Africa's southern cape before Europeans