The world became a theater long before theater, much less Shakespeare's Globe—namely, in that wondrous moment when man saw fields, roads, and houses from a bird's-eye view and depicted them in scale on stone. Thus, the first map on Earth appeared, two and a half thousand years ago, engraved on a rock in the Camonica Valley. This lavishly illustrated book by a Norwegian researcher offers a fascinating history of mapmaking, taking us from the enigmatic symbols of early humans to the Google Earth project to show how the ability to imagine the world evolved alongside its exploration. Each chapter reveals a stage on which astonishing scenes unfold: the dramatic search for the Northwest Passage, the enigmatic Panotian Islands, 'where people cover their naked bodies with their own ears,' the unexpected discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and continental drift, the adventures of the V-2 rocket, culminating in the advent of the Transit satellite and GPS. But no matter how humanity perceives the world—Ptolemaic or Copernican, carved into a mammoth tusk or digitized on our mobile phones—it never ceases to fascinate us and beckon with its endless mysteries. Just as centuries ago, today, thanks to maps (now touchscreen and digital), we not only find the right road or order a pizza, but also discover our planet, our history, and, of course, new roles.