ABSTRACT
The round map form was perhaps influenced by a medieval cartographic convention found in mappae mundi (maps of the world) first appearing in the seventh century and known as T-O maps. T-O maps present the world as a circle divided by a T-shape, the T being formed by the Don and Nile rivers and the Mediterranean Sea. The T divides the world into three land masses: Asia at the top (the convention in pre-compass days being that maps were ‘oriented’ to the east), Europe on the lower left and Africa on the lower right. In a similar fashion, the cross formed by the two main thoroughfares, the old Cardo Maximus and Decumanis, divides Jerusalem into four main areas, the Temple Mount forming a fifth division.
