It is impossible to image the geography science without a globe, a small copy of our planet. Its invention was an important step in the development of science, because its spherical shape allows us to understand what the Earth looks like.
Globe (from the Latin "globus" meaning a ball) has its own interesting history. It was created and improved by many scientists from around the world. Some historians believe that the globe was invented in Ancient Greece, but it is known that it came into use in the 15 century when people realized the extent of our planet and were finally convinced that it had the shape of a sphere.
The world’s oldest surviving globe is the Erdapfel of the German geographer Martin Behaim. It dates back to the 1490s. Behaim’s globe shows the geographical ideas of that time based on Ptolemy's maps and changes introduced by Marco Polo's travels and the expeditions of the Portuguese.
If in XV-XIX globes were actively used by sailors, travelers and researchers, today they are more often used in science and education. A globe is an essential attribute of any geography classroom, because, despite possibilities of modern electronic maps, globes help to easier remember the location of continents and oceans, Islands and seas, tropical forests and ice deserts.
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There are different types of globes. Thus, physical globes are designed to display the geographic characteristics of our earth, the structure of its surface, and the curves of the land and water area. And political globes focus on the location on states, countries and human settlements. There are also zoogeographic globes depicting animals that inhabit different regions of our planet, as well as various astronomical globes.
Physical and zoogeographic globes of different size, with lighting and without, can be purchased in the shop of the Russian Geographical Society.
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Members of the Russian Geographical Society and holders of RGS-Binbank cards receive a 10 percent discount.
Address: Novaya Ploshchad, 10/2
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.