Ideas about the earth at different times. How ancient people imagined the Earth and what has changed since then
Correct information about the Earth and its shape did not appear immediately, not at one time and not in one place. However, it is difficult to find out exactly where, when, and among which people they were most correct. Very few reliable ancient documents and material monuments have been preserved about this.
One of the oldest cultural countries on Earth - China. Several thousand years BC. e. the ancient Chinese had writing, were able to depict the area on a map and compiled geographical descriptions. But, unfortunately, ancient Chinese “drawings” (maps) and descriptions of lands have not yet been studied much. Studying them is a matter for the future, and it will undoubtedly open up many new and interesting things.
Indian culture is also very ancient. According to legend, Indians imagined the Earth as a plane lying on the backs of elephants.
The Babylonians' view of the Earth
Valuable historical materials have also reached us from the ancient peoples who lived in the Middle East, in the pp. basin. Tigris and Euphrates, in the Nile Delta and along the banks Mediterranean Sea in Asia Minor and Southern Europe.
Written documents from ancient Babylonia have reached our time. They date back about 6,000 years. The Babylonians, in turn, inherited knowledge from even more ancient peoples.
The Babylonians imagined the Earth as a mountain, western slope where Babylonia is located. They noticed that to the south of Babylon there was a sea, and to the east there were mountains that they did not dare cross. That’s why it seemed to them that Babylonia was located on the western slope of the “world” mountain. This mountain is round, and it is surrounded by the sea, and on the sea, like an overturned bowl, it rests solid sky heavenly world. In the sky, as on Earth, there is land, water and air. The celestial land is the belt of the Zodiac constellation, like a dam stretching among the celestial sea. The Sun, Moon and five planets move along this belt of land.
Under the Earth there is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend; at night the sun passes through this dungeon from western edge Earth to the east, so that in the morning they will again begin their daily journey across the sky.
Watching the sun set over the sea horizon, people thought that it was going into the sea and that it should also rise from the sea.
The ancient Babylonians' understanding of the Earth was thus based on observations of natural phenomena. However, limited knowledge did not allow them to correctly explain these phenomena.
The peoples who lived in Palestine imagined the Earth differently than the Babylonians. The ancient Jews lived on a plain and imagined the Earth as a plain with mountains rising here and there. Jews assigned a special place in the universe to the winds, which bring with them either rain or drought. The abode of the winds, in their opinion, is located in the lower zone of the sky and separates the Earth from the celestial waters: snow, rain and hail. Under the Earth there are waters, from which canals run up, feeding seas and rivers. The ancient Jews apparently had no idea about the shape of the entire Earth.
It is known that the Phoenicians, Egyptians and ancient Greeks were good sailors: even on small ships, they boldly embarked on long voyages and discovered new lands.
Geography owes a lot to the Hellenes, or ancient Greeks. This small people, who lived in the south of the Balkan and Apennine peninsulas of Europe, created a high culture.
The most ancient ideas of the Greeks about the Earth known to us are found in Homer’s poems - “Odyssey” and “Iliad” (XII-VIII century BC). From these works it is clear that the Greeks imagined the Earth as a slightly convex disk, reminiscent of a warrior’s shield. The Ocean River flows around the land on all sides. Above the Earth there is a copper firmament along which the Sun moves, rising daily from the waters of the Ocean in the east and plunging into them in the west.
One of Greek philosophers, named Thales (VI century BC), represented the Universe in the form of a liquid mass, inside of which there is a large bubble shaped like a hemisphere. The concave surface of this bubble is the sky, and on the lower flat surface, like a cork, floats flat earth. It is not difficult to guess that Thales based the idea of the Earth as a floating island on the fact that he knew that Greece is located on numerous islands.
The Greek Anaximander (6th century BC) imagined the Earth as a segment of a column or cylinder, on one of the two bases of which we live. The middle of the Earth is occupied by land in the form of a large round island - “Ecumene” (i.e., the populated Earth). She is surrounded by the ocean. Inside the Ecumene there is a sea basin, dividing it into two approximately equal parts: Europe and Asia. Greece is located in the center of the land, and the city of Delphi is in the center of Greece (“the navel of the Earth”).
The picture of the world according to the ideas of the ancient Egyptians: below is the Earth, above it is the goddess of the sky; to the left and to the right is the ship of the Sun god, showing the path of the Sun across the sky (from sunrise to sunset).
Anaxnmander explained the rise of the Sun and other luminaries on the eastern side of the sky, after they disappeared behind the horizon in the west, by their movement under the Earth in a circle. The firmament we see is thus half a sphere; the other hemisphere is under our feet. Anaximander believed that the Earth was the center of the Universe.
The followers of another ancient scientist, Pythagoras, went further: they recognized that the Earth was a sphere. They attributed the spherical shape not only to the Earth, but also to other planets.
The famous ancient scientist Aristotle (IV century BC) not only accepted the doctrine of the sphericity of the Earth, but was also the first to scientifically prove it. Aristotle pointed out that if the Earth did not have the shape of a sphere, then the shadow that it casts on the Moon during its eclipses would not be limited by an arc of a circle.
A new stage in the development of science of the ancient Greeks was the teaching of the outstanding astronomer ancient world Aristarchus of Samos (end of the 4th century - first half of the 3rd century BC). He expressed the idea that it is not the Sun together with the planets that moves around the Earth, but the Earth and all the planets revolve around the Sun.
However, he could not scientifically substantiate his idea; About 1700 years passed when the brilliant Polish scientist Copernicus managed to do this.
The ancient Greeks even tried to determine the size of the Earth. Famous writer in antiquity, Aristophanes (second half of the 5th - beginning of the 4th century BC) in his comedy “Clouds” spoke about attempts to determine the size of the Earth. The first fairly accurate measurement of the quantity globe, which served as the basis for mathematical geography, was produced by Eratosthenes of Cyrene (2nd century BC), an ancient Greek mathematician, astronomer and geographer. He, like Aristotle, believed that the Earth is spherical.
Thus, gradually ideas about the Earth became more and more correct.
Geographers of the ancient world tried to compile maps of the spaces known to them - the Ecumene and even the Earth and the whole. These maps were imperfect and far from the truth. More accurate maps appeared only in the last two centuries BC. e.
More than two and a half thousand years ago, the Babylonian priests already knew that the Earth was a sphere. They even calculated the circumference of the earth. According to their calculations, it was 24,000 miles. To verify the correctness of this figure, modern scientists tried to find out the length of the then mile. They were able to find an ancient Babylonian record that said a mile was equal to 4,000 camel steps. If we take the step length of a loaded camel as 80 cm, then the length of the earth’s circumference, according to the calculations of the Babylonians, was equal to 76,800 km, i.e., it turned out to be almost twice as large as in reality.
If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.
We imagined the Earth, there are many answers, since the views of our distant ancestors differed radically depending on what region of the planet they lived in. For example, according to one of the first cosmological models, it rests on three whales floating in the vast Ocean. It is obvious that such ideas about the world could not arise among the inhabitants of the desert, who had never seen the sea. Territorial reference can also be seen in the views of the ancient Indians. They believed that the Earth stood on elephants and was a hemisphere. They, in turn, are located on a ta - on a snake, curled up in a ring and enclosing the near-Earth space.
Egyptian views
The life and well-being of representatives of this ancient and one of the most interesting and original civilizations completely depended on the Nile. It is therefore not surprising that he was at the center of their cosmology.
It was leaking on the ground real river Nile, underground - underground, belonging to the kingdom of the dead, and in heaven - representing the firmament. The sun god Ra spent all his time traveling by boat. During the day he sailed along the celestial Nile, and at night along its underground continuation, flowing through the kingdom of the dead.
How the ancient Greeks imagined the Earth
Representatives of the Hellenic civilization left the greatest cultural heritage. Ancient Greek cosmology is part of it. It is reflected in Homer's poems - "Odyssey" and "Iliad". They describe the Earth as a convex disk resembling a warrior's shield. In its center there is land, washed on all sides by the Ocean. A copper firmament stretches above the Earth. The Sun moves along it, rising daily from the depths of the Ocean in the east and, making its way along a huge arc-shaped trajectory, plunges into the abyss of water in the west.
Later (in the 6th century BC), the ancient Greek philosopher Thales described the Universe in the form of a liquid endless mass. Inside it is a large hemisphere-shaped bubble. His top surface concave and represents the vault of heaven, and on the lower, flat one, like a cork, the Earth floats.
In Ancient Babylon
The ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia also had their own, unique ideas about the world. In particular, cuneiform evidence from ancient Babylonia, which is approximately 6 thousand years old, has been preserved. According to these “documents”, they imagined the Earth in the form of a huge World Mountain. On its western slope was Babylonia itself, and on the eastern slope were all the countries unknown to them. The World Mountain was surrounded by the sea, above which the solid vault of heaven was located in the form of an overturned bowl. It also consisted of water, air and land. The latter was a belt of Zodiac constellations. The Sun spent about 1 month in each of them annually. It moved along this belt along with the Moon and 5 planets.
Under the Earth there was an abyss where the souls of the dead found refuge. At night the Sun passed through the dungeon.
Among the ancient Jews
According to the Jews, the Earth was a plain, on different parts where the mountains rose. Being farmers, they gave a special place to the winds, bringing with them either drought or rain. Their repository was located in lower tier the sky and was a barrier between the Earth and the heavenly waters: rain, snow and hail. Under the Earth there were waters, from which canals went up that fed the seas and rivers.
These ideas have constantly evolved, and the Talmud already indicates that the Earth is round. At the same time, her Bottom part immersed in the sea. At the same time, some sages believed that the Earth was flat, and the firmament was a solid, opaque cap covering it. During the day, the Sun passes under it, which moves above the sky at night and is therefore hidden from human eyes.
Ancient Chinese ideas about the Earth
Judging by archaeological finds, representatives of this civilization considered the tortoise shell to be the prototype of space. Its shields divided the plane of the Earth into squares - countries.
Later, the ideas of the Chinese sages changed. In one of the oldest text documents, it is believed that the Earth is covered by the sky, which is an umbrella rotating in a horizontal direction. Over time, astronomical observations have made adjustments to this model. In particular, they began to believe that space, surrounding the Earth, is spherical.
How did the ancient Indians imagine the Earth?
Basically, information has reached us about the cosmological ideas of the ancient inhabitants Central America, since they had their own writing. In particular, the Mayans, like their closest neighbors, thought that the Universe consisted of three levels - heaven, underworld and earth. The latter seemed to them like a plane floating on the surface of the water. In some older sources, the Earth was giant crocodile, on the back of which there were mountains, plains, forests, etc.
As for the sky, it consisted of 13 levels on which the star-gods were located, and the most important of them was Itzamna, who gave life to all things.
Lower world also consisted of levels. At the lowest (9th) were the possessions of the deity of Death Ah Puch, who was depicted in the form of a human skeleton. The sky, the Earth (flat) and the Lower World were divided into 4 sectors, coinciding with the parts of the world. In addition, the Mayans believed that before them the gods more than once destroyed and created the Universe.
Formation of the first scientific views
The way ancient people imagined the Earth changed over time, primarily due to travel. In particular, the ancient Greeks, who achieved great success in navigation, they soon began to try to create a system of cosmology based on observations.
For example, the hypothesis of Pythagoras of Samos, who already in the 6th century BC, was radically different from how ancient people imagined the Earth. e. suggested that it has a spherical shape.
However, it was possible to prove his hypothesis only much later. At the same time, there is reason to believe that this idea was borrowed by Pythagoras from the Egyptian priests, who used it to explain natural phenomena many centuries before classical philosophy began to take shape among the Greeks.
200 years later, Aristotle used observations of lunar eclipses to prove the sphericity of our planet. His work was continued by Claudius Ptolemy, who lived in the second century AD, and created a geocentric system of the universe.
Now you know how ancient people imagined the Earth. Over the past millennia, humanity's knowledge of our planet and space has changed significantly. However, it is always interesting to learn about the views of our distant ancestors.
The ideas of the ancients about the Earth were based primarily on mythological ideas.
Some peoples believed that the Earth was flat and supported by three whales that floated across the vast ocean. Consequently, these whales were in their eyes the main foundations, the foundation of the whole world.
Increase geographical information associated primarily with travel and navigation, as well as with the development of simple astronomical observations.
Ancient Greeks imagined the Earth to be flat. This opinion was held, for example, by the ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, who lived in the 6th century BC. He considered the Earth to be a flat disk surrounded by a sea inaccessible to humans, from which the stars emerge every evening and into which they set every morning. Every morning, the sun god Helios (later identified with Apollo) rose from the eastern sea in a golden chariot and made his way across the sky.
The world in the minds of the ancient Egyptians: below is the Earth, above it is the goddess of the sky; to the left and to the right is the ship of the Sun god, showing the path of the Sun across the sky from sunrise to sunset.
The ancient Indians imagined the Earth as a hemisphere held by four elephant . Elephants stand on huge turtle, and the turtle is on a snake, which, curled up in a ring, closes the near-earth space.
Residents of Babylon imagined the Earth in the form of a mountain, on the western slope of which Babylonia is located. They knew that to the south of Babylon there was a sea, and to the east there were mountains that they did not dare cross. That’s why it seemed to them that Babylonia was located on the western slope of the “world” mountain. This mountain is surrounded by the sea, and on the sea, like an overturned bowl, rests the solid sky - the heavenly world, where, like on Earth, there is land, water and air. The celestial land is the belt of the 12 constellations of the Zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. The Sun appears in each constellation for about a month each year. The Sun, Moon and five planets move along this belt of land. Under the Earth there is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend. At night, the Sun passes through this underground from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, so that in the morning it will again begin its daily journey across the sky. Watching the Sun set over the sea horizon, people thought that it went into the sea and also rose from the sea. Thus, the ancient Babylonians’ ideas about the Earth were based on observations of natural phenomena, but limited knowledge did not allow them to be correctly explained.
Earth according to the ancient Babylonians.
When people began to travel far, evidence gradually began to accumulate that the Earth was not flat, but convex.
Great ancient Greek scientist Pythagoras Samos(in the 6th century BC) first suggested that the Earth was spherical. Pythagoras was right. But it was possible to prove the Pythagorean hypothesis, and even more so to determine the radius of the globe much later. It is believed that this idea Pythagoras borrowed from the Egyptian priests. When the Egyptian priests knew about this, one can only guess, since, unlike the Greeks, they hid their knowledge from the general public.
Pythagoras himself may have also relied on the testimony of a simple sailor Skilacus of Karian, who in 515 BC. made a description of his voyages in the Mediterranean.
Famous ancient Greek scientist Aristotle(IV century BC)e.)
was the first to use observations of the Earth to prove the sphericity of the Earth. lunar eclipses. Here are three facts:
- Earth's shadow falling on full moon, always round. During eclipses the Earth is turned towards the Moon different sides. But only the ball always casts a round shadow.
- Ships, moving away into the sea from the observer, are not gradually lost from sight due to the long distance, but almost instantly seem to “sink”, disappearing beyond the horizon.
- Some stars can only be seen from certain parts of the Earth, while to other observers they are never visible.
Claudius Ptolemy(2nd century AD) - ancient Greek astronomer, mathematician, optician, music theorist and geographer. In the period from 127 to 151 he lived in Alexandria, where he conducted astronomical observations. He continued Aristotle's teaching regarding the sphericity of the Earth.
He created his geocentric system of the universe and taught that all celestial bodies move around the Earth in empty cosmic space.
Subsequently, the Ptolemaic system was recognized Christian church.
The universe according to Ptolemy: the planets rotate in empty space.
Finally, the outstanding astronomer of the ancient world Aristarchus of Samos(end of the 4th - first half of the 3rd century BC) expressed the idea that it is not the Sun together with the planets that moves around the Earth, but the Earth and all the planets revolve around the Sun. However, he had very little evidence at his disposal.
And about 1,700 years passed before the Polish scientist managed to prove this Copernicus.
Since ancient times, people have watched with excitement starry sky, trying to unravel the mystery of the structure of the surrounding world. Today, humanity knows much more about how the Universe works, what elements and objects it consists of. But ancient ideas about the Universe differed significantly from modern scientific views.
In contact with
Classmates
Ancient Greeks
Imagined the Earth to be flat. This opinion was held, for example, by the ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, who lived in the 6th century BC. He considered the Earth to be a flat disk surrounded by a sea inaccessible to humans, from which the stars emerge every evening and into which they set every morning. Every morning, the sun god Helios (later identified with Apollo) rose from the eastern sea in a golden chariot and made his way across the sky.
Egypt
The world in the minds of the ancient Egyptians: below is the Earth, above it is the goddess of the sky; to the left and to the right is the ship of the Sun god, showing the path of the Sun across the sky from sunrise to sunset.
India
The ancient Indians imagined the Earth as a hemisphere supported by four elephants. The elephants stood on a huge turtle that swam in the sea of milk. All these animals were wrapped in rings by the black cobra Sheshu, and her thousands of heads propped up the Universe.
Babylon. Today's Iraq... in those parts
The inhabitants of Babylon imagined the Earth as a mountain, on the western slope of which Babylonia was located. They knew that to the south of Babylon there was a sea, and to the east there were mountains that they did not dare cross. That’s why it seemed to them that Babylonia was located on the western slope of the “world” mountain. This mountain is surrounded by the sea, and on the sea, like an overturned bowl, rests the solid sky - the heavenly world, where, like on Earth, there is land, water and air. The celestial land is the belt of the 12 constellations of the Zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. The Sun appears in each constellation for about a month each year. The Sun, Moon and five planets move along this belt of land. Under the Earth there is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend. At night, the Sun passes through this underground from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, so that in the morning it will again begin its daily journey across the sky. Watching the Sun set over the sea horizon, people thought that it went into the sea and also rose from the sea. Thus, the ancient Babylonians’ ideas about the Earth were based on observations of natural phenomena, but limited knowledge did not allow them to be correctly explained.
Greeks.
The famous ancient Greek scientist Aristotle (IV century BC) was the first to use observations of lunar eclipses to prove the sphericity of the Earth. Before him, by the way, Pythagoras of Samos put forward this theory (in the 6th century BC)
Here are three facts:
* the shadow of the Earth falling on the full Moon is always round. During eclipses, the Earth is turned to the Moon in different directions. But only the ball always casts a round shadow.
** Ships, moving away from the observer into the sea, are not gradually lost from sight due to the long distance, but almost instantly seem to “sink”, disappearing beyond the horizon.
*** some stars can only be seen from certain parts of the Earth, but to other observers they are never visible.
Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century AD) - ancient Greek astronomer, mathematician, optician, music theorist and geographer. In the period from 127 to 151 he lived in Alexandria, where he conducted astronomical observations. He continued Aristotle's teaching regarding the sphericity of the Earth.
He created his geocentric system of the universe and taught that all celestial bodies move around the Earth in empty cosmic space.
Subsequently, the Ptolemaic system was recognized by the Christian Church.
Finally, the outstanding astronomer of the ancient world, Aristarchus of Samos (late 4th - first half of the 3rd century BC) expressed the idea that it is not the Sun together with the planets that moves around the Earth, but the Earth and all the planets revolve around the Sun. However, he had very little evidence at his disposal.
And about 1,700 years passed before the Polish scientist Copernicus managed to prove this.
Copernicus
His hypotheses refuted the theory of the ancient Greek scientist Ptolemy, which had existed for almost 1,500 years. According to this theory, the Earth rested motionless in the center of the Universe, and all the planets, including the Sun, revolved around it.
Although Ptolemy's teaching could not explain many astronomical phenomena, but the church for many centuries maintained the inviolability of this theory, since it completely suited it. But Copernicus could not be content with hypotheses alone; he needed more compelling arguments, but it was very difficult to prove the correctness of his theory in practice in those days: there were no telescopes, and astronomical instruments were primitive. The scientist, observing the sky, drew conclusions about the incorrectness of Ptolemy’s theory, and with the help of mathematical calculations he convincingly proved that all planets, including the Earth, revolve around the Sun.
The church could not accept the teachings of Copernicus, since it destroyed the theory of the divine origin of the Universe. Nicolaus Copernicus outlined the result of his 40 years of research in the work “On the Rotation of the Celestial Spheres,” which, thanks to the efforts of his student Joachim Rheticus and like-minded person Tiedemann Giese, was published in Nuremberg in May 1543.
The scientist himself was already ill at that time: he suffered a stroke, as a result of which the right half of his body was paralyzed. On May 24, 1543, after another hemorrhage, the great Polish astronomer died. They say that already on his deathbed, Copernicus still managed to see his book printed.
In general: But still she spins!
Italian. Galileo Galilei (Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de Galilei)
Creates his own tube and calls it a telescope! By the way, I copied it from the Dutch. It seems that the invention did not help them, unlike Vincenzo, or they did not have enough brains)
After careful measurements and calculations, Galileo's telescope turns out to be incredibly accurate (for those times), but it also allows Galileo to make a lot of discoveries.
Galileo made his very first discovery after a detailed study of the surface of the Moon. He not only proved, but also described in detail the mountains that are on the surface of the Moon.
Galileo's second discovery was - Milky Way. The scientist proved that it consists of a cluster of many stars. In addition to such a cluster of stars, the scientist suggested that there are other galaxies in the world that can be located in different planes of the vast Universe.
The third most significant and significant discovery was the 4 satellites of Jupiter.
With his observations, Galileo simply and accurately proved that any cosmic body can rotate around others celestial bodies and not only near the Earth. The great astronomer examined and described in detail the spots on the Sun, of course, other people saw them, but no one was able to worthy and in the right way describe them until Galileo Galilei did it.
In addition to observing the Moon, Galileo also revealed to the world the phases of the planet Venus. In his writings, he compared the phases of Venus with the phases of the Moon. All such important and significant observations boiled down to the fact that the Earth, along with other planets of our galaxy, revolves around the Sun.
Galileo described all his observations and discoveries in a scientific book called “Star Messenger”. It was after reading this book and the discoveries that Galileo made that almost all monarchs in Europe demanded the purchase of a telescope. The scientist himself gave several of his inventions to his patrons.
Of course, compared to current telescopes like Hubble, the Galileo telescope looks uncomplicated and simple. If you think about what such a primitive device allowed one person to do great amount discoveries, it becomes clear that it does not matter whether a person has a supernova or an old device - the main thing is that the person looking into it has an extraordinary mind.
And by the way, they burned Giordano Bruno. This is such an irony...
MUNICIPAL BUDGETARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION
"NOVOSELOVSKAYA SECONDARY SCHOOL"
RAZDOLNENSKY DISTRICT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CRIMEA
Prepared by:
teacher primary classes
MBOU "Novoselovskaya School"
Nezboretskaya Olga Vasilievna
village Novoselovskoye – 2016
The ancient peoples' idea of the Earth
Correct information about the Earth and its shape did not appear immediately, not at one time and not in one place. However, it is difficult to find out exactly where, when, and among which people they were most correct. Very few reliable ancient documents and material monuments have been preserved about this.
First prototypes geographical maps known to us in the form of images left by our ancestors on the walls of caves, incisions on stones and animal bones. Researchers find such sketches in different parts of the world.
The way ancient people imagined the Earth largely depended on the nature, topography and climate of the places where they lived. Because the peoples different corners saw the planets in their own way the world, and these views differed significantly.
For the most part, all ancient ideas about the Earth were based primarily on mythological ideas.
Ancient inhabitants of the ocean coast
According to legend, the ancient inhabitants of the ocean coast imagined the Earth as a plane lying on the backs of three whales.
Ancient Indians
According to legend, the ancient Indians imagined the Earth as a plane lying on the backs of elephants.
Probably the most famous legend today, telling how ancient people imagined the Earth, was composed by the ancient Indians. These people believed that the Earth was actually shaped like a hemisphere, which rested on the backs of four elephants. These elephants stood on their backs giant turtle floating in an endless sea of milk. All these creatures were wrapped in many rings by the black cobra Sheshu, which had several thousand heads. These heads, according to Indian beliefs, supported the Universe.
Ancient Babylonians
Valuable historical information about the Earth and its shape were preserved by the ancient peoples who lived in the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Nile Delta and along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea (in Asia Minor and Southern Europe). Written documents from ancient Babylonia have reached our time. They date back about 6,000 years.
The Babylonians, in turn, inherited knowledge from even more ancient peoples. The Babylonians imagined the Earth as a mountain, on the western slope of which Babylonia was located. They noticed that to the south of Babylon there was a sea, and to the east there were mountains that they did not dare cross. That's why it seemed to them. This mountain is round, and it is surrounded by the sea, and on the sea, like an overturned bowl, rests the solid sky - the heavenly world, like on Earth, there is land, water and air. The celestial land is the belt of the 12 constellations of the Zodiac. The Sun appears in each constellation for about a month each year. The Sun, Moon and five planets move along this belt of land. Under the Earth there is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend. At night, the Sun passes through this underground from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, so that in the morning it will again begin its daily journey across the sky.
Ancient Greeks
The ancient Greeks imagined the Earth as a flat disk surrounded by a sea inaccessible to humans, from which the stars emerge every evening and into which they set every morning. The sun god Helios rose every morning from the eastern sea in a golden chariot and made his way across the sky.
Ancient Egyptians
The world in the minds of the ancient Egyptians: below is the Earth, above it is the goddess of the sky; left and right - the ship of the Sun god, showing the path of the Sun across the sky from sunrise to sunset
Ancient Jews
The ancient Jews imagined the Earth differently. They lived on a plain, and the Earth seemed to them to be a plain, with mountains rising here and there. Jews assigned a special place in the universe to the winds, which bring with them either rain or drought. The abode of the winds, in their opinion, was located in the lower zone of the sky and separated the Earth from the celestial waters: snow, rain and hail. Under the Earth there are waters, from which canals run up, feeding seas and rivers. The ancient Jews apparently had no idea about the shape of the entire Earth.
Ancient Muslims
Seven heavenly spheres according to Muslim ideas. The worldview that the universe is like a multi-stage structure. The universe is divided by Muslim theologians into three main parts - heaven, earth and the underworld. All seven heavens have their own purpose, their own color and properties, and are inhabited by angels of the corresponding ranks: the 1st heaven in Muslim mythology is considered the source of thunder and rain, the 2nd consists of molten silver, the third - of reddish ruby, the 4th - of pearls , the 5th is made of red gold, the 6th is made of gaping rubies. In the end, the 7th heaven is inhabited by the more glorious and powerful of the angels - the cherubim, who weep and groan before God day and night, begging him to have mercy on lost sinners.
Ancient Slavs
The Slavs' ideas about the earthly structure were very complex and confusing. Some ancient Slavs believed that you can get to any sky by climbing the World Tree, which connects the Lower World, the Earth and all nine heavens. The World Tree looks like a huge spreading oak tree. However, on this oak tree the seeds of all trees and herbs ripen. This tree was very important element ancient Slavic mythology - it connected all three levels of the world, extended its branches to the four cardinal directions and with its “state” symbolized the mood of people and Gods in various rituals: green Tree meant prosperity and a good share, and dried symbolized despondency and was used in rituals where evil Gods participated. And where the top of the World Tree rises above the seventh heaven, there is an island. This island was called "irium" or "virium". Some scientists believe that the current word “paradise”, which is so firmly associated in our life with Christianity, comes from it.
The Old Testament Land in the form of a tabernacle.
View of the Earth according to the ideas of Homer and Hesiod.
Geographers of the ancient world tried to compile maps of the spaces known to them - the Ecumene and even the Earth as a whole. These maps were imperfect and far from the truth. More accurate maps appeared only in the last two centuries BC. e.
When people began to travel far, evidence gradually began to accumulate that the Earth was not flat, but convex. So, moving south, travelers noticed that in south side In the sky, stars rise above the horizon in proportion to the distance traveled and new stars appear above the Earth that were not visible before. And in the northern side of the sky, on the contrary, the stars descend down to the horizon and then completely disappear behind it. The bulge of the Earth was also confirmed by observations of receding ships. The ship gradually disappears over the horizon. The hull of the ship has already disappeared and only the masts are visible above the surface of the sea. Then they disappear too. On this basis, people began to assume that the Earth was spherical. There is an opinion that before completion, whose ships sailed in one direction and unexpectedly arrived with reverse side there, that is, until September 6, 1522, no one suspected the sphericity of the Earth.