Medieval World View

Maps during the Medieval Age did not attempt to portray geographic distances in the same manner contemporary maps of today do. Rather, maps provided ideas about theology and cosmology, instructing people about the underlying meaning to the places on the map.

Many maps portrayed Europe at the center of the world. Depictions of Monstrous creatures were placed on the boundaries. Some maps were highly religious. This theological maps demonstrated the relative importance of people or places on the map by their distance from the center, which functioned as the center of the religion. Maps, like the one above, depicted Christ as part of the geography. Places that were most Christian, i.e. civilized were placed close to Christ, whereas the monstrous, non-Christian people were placed far away from Him. Other maps functioned in a similar way, except they placed Jerusalem at the center of the world, as opposed to Jesus Christ. see Index of Early Medieval Maps

Via Medieval Visions of the East