Ever wondered why Greenland looks as big as Africa on the map? It’s because of something called the Mercator projection. Putting a 3-D planet on a two-dimensional world map was challenging for early ...

"On classroom walls from Lagos to London", the standard map of the world depicts an "inflated Britain at the centre" and a dramatically "shrunken Africa", said The Times. But this could soon change.

For centuries, the familiar Mercator world map has quietly distorted Africa's size and significance. Now, a coalition of African nations is leading a campaign to set the record straight with a new, ...