map, graphic representation, drawn to scale and usually on a flat surface, of features—for example, geographical, geological, or geopolitical—of an area of the Earth or of any other celestial body. Globes are maps represented on the surface of a sphere.

Cartography or map-making is the study and practice of crafting representations of the Earth upon a flat surface [2] (see History of cartography), and one who makes maps is called a cartographer. Road maps are perhaps the most widely used maps today.

The job of a map is to describe spatial relationships of specific features that the map aims to represent. There are many different types of maps that attempt to represent specific things.

Mapping, any prescribed way of assigning to each object in one set a particular object in another (or the same) set. Mapping applies to any set: a collection of objects, such as all whole numbers, all the points on a line, or all those inside a circle. For example, “multiply by two” defines a