Map

This is a representation of the earth’s surface or part of it drawn to scale.

An outline of a small part of the earth, such as a market or church, we call it a plan. One who makes maps is called a cartographer.

Title of a map

This describes the map. It tells the primary content of the map. This is normally found at the top or bottom. For example, “Minerals in Ghana.”

Date of a map

This tells the reader when the map was drawn or made. The date on the map, makes it possible for the age of the map to be calculated.

Examples; 1. 1992 Minerals in Ghana

               2. Minerals in Ghana
                    July 19, 1992

Direction

This helps to turn the map to any direction. This talks about the compass and helps to know directions. They are made of four directions called the cardinal directions. They are; North, South, East and West.

Key

Map keys are symbols used on a particular map or chart. The map keys tell what the symbols in the map or chart stand for. They are small pictures on the map that can be used to represent real keys on earth, such as; gold, timber, diamond among others. Map keys are very important to understanding maps, it gives information needed for the map. They are usually small boxes at the bottom right corner of the map. Map key is also known as map legend.

Scale

This is the ratio between a distance on a map and the corresponding distance on the earth’s surface. For example, a scale drawing of 1: 10,000 scale means that everyone paper map unit represents 10,000 on the earth surface or 1cm on the map equals 1km on the earth’s surface.