Those of us who draw maps of fantastic worlds and terrains fall too easily for the cliche that what the cartographer made is indeed a correct representation of the land - and that is rather reasonable. We, the person who really made the map, want to show the viewer how the land really is.

But most (famous, antique) real cartographers never saw what they drew. They relied on reports and older maps.

So for every call for the River Police, I want to offer the famous map of China from Joan Blaeu's "Atlas Major" in response.

Click image for larger version. 

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