Road map

A road map or route map is a map that primarily displays roads and transport links rather than natural geographical information. It is a type of navigational map that commonly includes political boundaries and labels, making it also a type of political map. In addition to roads and boundaries, road maps often include points of interest, such as prominent businesses or buildings, tourism sites, parks and recreational facilities, hotels and restaurants, as well as airports and train stations. A road map may also document non-automotive transit routes, although often these are found only on transit maps. A road map or route map is a map that primarily displays roads and transport links rather than natural geographical information. It is a type of navigational map that commonly includes political boundaries and labels, making it also a type of political map. In addition to roads and boundaries, road maps often include points of interest, such as prominent businesses or buildings, tourism sites, parks and recreational facilities, hotels and restaurants, as well as airports and train stations. A road map may also document non-automotive transit routes, although often these are found only on transit maps. The Turin Papyrus Map is sometimes characterized as the earliest known road map. Drawn around 1160 BC, it depicts routes along dry river beds through a mining region east of Thebes in Ancient Egypt. The Dura-Europos Route map is the oldest known map of (a part of) Europe preserved in its original form. It is a fragment of a map drawn onto a leather portion of a shield by a Roman soldier in c. 235 AD. It depicts several towns along the northwest coast of the Black Sea. The Tabula Peutingeriana, a copy of a scroll originally dating to about 350 AD, plots the extent of the Cursus publicus, the Roman road network that ran from Europe and North Africa to West Asia. It is highly schematic, compressing the Mediterranean Sea to a sliver and orienting the Italian Peninsula to run east-west. The Gough Map, dating to about 1360, is the oldest known road map of Great Britain. In 1500, Erhard Etzlaub produced the 'Rom-Weg' (Way to Rome) Map, the first known road map of medieval Central Europe. It was produced to help religious pilgrims reach Rome for the occasion of the 'Holy Year 1500'. Rand McNally's first road map, the New Automobile Road Map of New York City & Vicinity, was published in 1904. Gousha was founded in 1926 by former Rand McNally employees. General Drafting was founded in 1909. These three companies produced most of the approximately eight billion free maps handed out at American filling stations over a period of about 1920 to 1980. The practice of offering free maps diminished considerably in the 1970s. The first Michelin map was produced in 1910. With the rise of GPS navigation and other electronic maps in the 21st century, the use of printed maps is waning.