Professor Jerry Brotton explains the creation and importance of maps, discovering the latest technology that is improving the cartographer's art and revolutionising man's knowledge of the world. On a visit to the world's oldest map, etched into a hillside 3,000 years ago, he considers how different cultures have approached map-making over millennia, often as a tool for expansionism and political control

Professor Jerry Brotton examines the way maps have reflected contemporary politics and belief - and in some cases inspired them. He studies medieval religious cartography on maps showing pilgrims the routes to Jerusalem or heaven, Victorian illustrations of the world - with every nation awarded a score according to how `civilised' they were deemed to be - and modern mapping of social problems including infant mortality and HIV

Professor Jerry Brotton explains how maps encouraged the plunder and conquest of far-off lands as fabled riches drove explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Walter Raleigh to the New World. He explores the founding of America and the myth of Eldorado, before discussing how cartography made international enterprise possible through the Dutch East India Company and similar ventures