Marvel at the most accurately drawn Earth map

Japanese architect Hajime Narukawa claims to have solved a problem for centuries - how to draw a sphere flattened to Earth on a flat surface.

He claimed the above map, called AuthaGraph World Map , achieved this task.

World Map AuthaGraph.

This Earth Map, first created in 1999, arranges the physical components of the world in a 2D rectangle, trying to describe their relative size as accurately as possible.

By doing so, this map has divided the parts of the world into 96 triangles, making it into a tetrahedron, then opening it to become a rectangle.

Unlike the traditional Mercator maps , made in the 16th century, are said to have overstated the size of northern regions like Greenland and minimized central areas like Africa, World Map AuthaGraph still keep the same area as on 3D map.

World Map AuthaGraph retains the same area as on 3D maps.

This map of the globe recently won a major Japanese design award in 2016, which was established by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1957.

Users can buy a global version of the map, and can be removed.