When you look at a map of the world, it makes sense to assume that Greenland and Africa are similar in size. But in reality, the African continent is 14 times as big as the icy northern land mass.

The first known map ... same size as the United States. Despite these immense differences in what is reality for many country’s true sizes, Mercator’s map is widely used across the world ...

Centuries of flawed maps have led to a misconception about Greenland's size, which is nowhere near as big as it looks on the familiar flat world map. It's certainly not a small island: It's about ...