1.
Summit
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A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a maximum in elevation. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak, and zenith are synonymous, the UIAA definition is that a summit is independent if it has a prominence of 30 metres or more, it is a mountain if it has a prominence of at least 300 metres. This can be summarised as follows, A pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice erosion of a mountain top, Summit may also refer to the highest point along a line, trail, or route. In many parts of the western United States, the term refers to the highest point along a road, highway. For example, the highest point along Interstate 80 in California is referred to as Donner Summit while the highest point on Interstate 5 is Siskiyou Mountain Summit, geoid Hill List of highest mountains Maxima and minima Nadir Summit accordance Peak finder
2.
Snowdon
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Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales, at an elevation of 1,085 metres above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles south of the Scottish Highlands. It is located in Snowdonia National Park in Gwynedd, and has described as probably the busiest mountain in Britain. It is designated as a nature reserve for its rare flora. The cliff faces on Snowdon, including Clogwyn Dur Arddu, are significant for rock climbing, the summit also houses a cafe called Hafod Eryri, open only when the railway is operating and opened in 2009 to replace one built in the 1930s. The railway generally operates to the station from Whitsun to October. The daily running schedule depends on weather and customer demand, as well as other figures from Arthurian legend, the mountain is linked to a legendary afanc and the Tylwyth Teg. A1682 survey estimated that the summit of Snowdon was at a height of 3,720 feet, in 1773, Thomas Pennant quoted a later estimate of 3,568 ft above sea level at Caernarfon. Recent surveys give the height of the summit as 1,085 m, making Snowdon the highest mountain in Wales, Snowdon is one of three mountains climbed as part of the National Three Peaks Challenge. The unique environment of Snowdon, particularly its rare plants, has led to its designation as a nature reserve. In addition to plants that are widespread in Snowdonia, Snowdon is home to some plants rarely found elsewhere in Britain, Snowdon lies in the northern part of Snowdonia National Park, which has also provided some legal protection since the parks establishment in 1951. The rocks which make up Snowdon and its neighbouring mountains were formed in the Ordovician Period. At that time, most of modern-day Wales was near the edge of Avalonia, in the Soudleyan stage of the Caradoc age, a volcanic caldera formed, and produced ash flows of rhyolitic tuff, which formed deposits up to 500 metres thick. The current summit is near the edge of the ancient caldera, the calderas full extent is unclear. Snowdon and its surrounding peaks have been described as examples of Alpine topography. The summits of Snowdon and Garnedd Ugain are surrounded by cwms, erosion by glaciers in adjacent cwms caused the characteristic arêtes of Crib Goch, Crib y Ddysgl and Y Lliwedd, and the pyramidal peak of Snowdon itself. Other glacial landforms that can be seen around Snowdon include roches moutonnées, glacial erratics, the English name Snowdon comes from the Old English snaw dun, meaning snow hill, as Snowdon often has a covering of snow. Although the amount of snow on Snowdon in winter varies significantly, the slopes of Snowdon have one of the wettest climates in Great Britain, receiving an annual average of more than 200 inches of precipitation. A number of lakes are found in the various cwms of the Snowdon range, Llyn Llydaw –1,430 feet high,110 acres – lies in Cwm Dyli, Snowdons eastern cwm, and is one of Snowdonias deepest lakes, at up to 190 ft deep
3.
Lists of mountains and hills in the British Isles
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The mountains and hills of Great Britain, and to a lesser extent Ireland, are the subject of a considerable number of lists that categorise them by height, topographic prominence, or other criteria. They are commonly used as a basis for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt to reach all the summits on a given list. The oldest and best known of these lists is that of the Munros, mountains in Scotland over 3,000 feet, other well-known lists include the Corbetts, Wainwrights and Marilyns. There is no consensus on the definition of mountain, but in Great Britain. The UK government defines mountain as land over 600 metres for the purposes of freedom of access, in addition, some definitions also include a topographical prominence requirement, typically 100 or 500 feet. In practice, mountains in Scotland are frequently referred to as no matter what their height, as reflected in names such as the Cuillin Hills. In Wales, the distinction is more a term of land use, the Munros are mountains in Scotland over 3,000 ft. The list was compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891. There are 282 Munros and 227 further tops, all of them in the Scottish Highlands, list of Munros The Murdos are an attempt to apply objective criteria to the Munros and their associated tops. They comprise all the summits in Scotland over 3,000 feet with a prominence of at least 30 metres, there are currently 442 Murdos, compared to 282 Munros or 509 Munros plus tops. The list was compiled by Alan Dawson, all Murdos are also Munro Tops, but many Munro Tops fail to qualify as Murdos because of insufficient relative height. Before 1997 there were seven Murdos that were not Munro Tops, all seven were included in the 1997 edition of Munros Tables, plus two non-Murdos, Little Pap on Lochnagar and Knights Peak on Sgurr nan Gillean or a UK top-tier administrative area. There are now 347 Hardys with the recent addition of 5 low lying English coastal estuary islands,61 hill ranges,96 islands and 190 administrative areas,183 are in England,31 in Wales,107 in Scotland and 26 in Northern Ireland. The list was first compiled in the 1990s by Ian Hardy, the Marilyns were supplemented in 2007 by the HuMPs which reduces the Prominence requirement to 100m. The list was compiled by Mark Jackson from a number of sources. There are almost 3,000 British HuMPs, including three in the Channel Islands, More recently, Mark Jackson compiled the TuMPs, a list of all hills in Britain having a prominence of 30 metres. By definition, all Murdos, Corbett Tops, Graham Tops, Hewitts, there are over 16,000 TuMPs, approximately half of that number that did not appear in previously researched lists were researched by Mark Jackson between 2006 and 2009. Since 2012 the list has been published and maintained by the editors of The Database of British and Irish Hills, a list of mountains, over 2, 000-foot-high, in England and Wales was published by Buxton & Lewis in 1986
4.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
5.
Mountain range
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A mountain range is a geographic area containing numerous geologically related mountains. A mountain system or system of ranges, sometimes is used to combine several geological features that are geographically related. Mountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys, individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, most geologically young mountain ranges on the Earths land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt. The Andes is 7,000 kilometres long and is considered the worlds longest mountain system. The Alpide belt includes Indonesia and southeast Asia, through the Himalaya, the belt also includes other European and Asian mountain ranges. The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, mountain ranges outside of these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera, the Urals, the Appalachians, the Scandinavian Mountains, the Altai Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains. If the definition of a range is stretched to include underwater mountains. The mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, the sub-range relationship is often expressed as a parent-child relationship. For example, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Mountains are sub-ranges of the Appalachian Mountains, equivalently, the Appalachians are the parent of the White Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains, and the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains are children of the Appalachians. The position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow, when air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation. As the air descends on the side, it warms again and is drier. Often, a shadow will affect the leeward side of a range. Mountain ranges are constantly subjected to forces which work to tear them down. Erosion is at work while the mountains are being uplifted and long after until the mountains are reduced to low hills, rivers are traditionally believed to be the principle erosive factor on mountain ranges, with their ability of bedrock incision and sediment transport. The rugged topography of a range is the product of erosion. The basins adjacent to a mountain range are filled with sediments which are buried and turned into sedimentary rock. The early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example and this mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift
6.
Snowdonia
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Snowdonia is a mountainous region in north Wales and a national park of 823 square miles in area. It was the first to be designated of the three parks in Wales, in 1951. The English name for the area derives from Snowdon, which is the highest mountain in Wales at 3,560 ft, in Welsh, the area is named Eryri. The term ‘Eryri’ first appeared in a manuscript in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum, in the Middle Ages the title Prince of Wales and Lord of Snowdonia was used by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, his grandfather Llywelyn Fawr used the title Prince of north Wales and Lord of Snowdonia. This is apparent in books published prior to 1951, such as the classic travelogue Wild Wales by George Borrow, F. J. North, as editor of the book Snowdonia, states When the Committee delineated provisional boundaries, they included areas some distance beyond Snowdonia proper. The traditional Snowdonia thus includes the ranges of Snowdon and its satellites, the Glyderau, the Carneddau and it does not include the hills to the south of Maentwrog. As Eryri, this area has a place in Welsh history, tradition. Snowdonia National Park was established in 1951 as the national park in Britain, following the Peak District. It covers 827 square miles, and has 37 miles of coastline, the park is governed by the Snowdonia National Park Authority, which is made up of local government and Welsh representatives, and its main offices are at Penrhyndeudraeth. Unlike national parks in countries, Snowdonia are made up of both public and private lands under central planning authority. The makeup of land ownership at Snowdonia is as follows, More than 26,000 people live within the park,58. 6% of the population could speak Welsh in 2011. While most of the land is open or mountainous land. Since the local government re-organisation of 1998, the park partly in the county of Gwynedd. Unusually, Snowdonia National Park has a hole in the middle, around the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog and this was deliberately excluded from the park when it was set up to allow the development of new light industry to replace the reduced slate industry. The Snowdonia Society is a charity formed in 1967. It is a group of people with an interest in the area. Amory Lovins led the successful 1970s opposition to stop Rio Tinto digging up the area for a massive mine. Research indicates that there were 3.67 million visitors to Snowdonia National Park in 2013, total tourist expenditure was £433.6 million in 2013
7.
Ordnance Survey
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Ordnance Survey is a non-ministerial government department which acts as the national mapping agency for Great Britain and is one of the worlds largest producers of maps. Since 1 April 2015 it has operated as Ordnance Survey Ltd, the Ordnance Survey Board remain accountable to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It is also a member of the Public Data Group, the agencys name indicates its original military purpose, mapping Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rebellion in 1745. There was also a general and nationwide need in light of the potential threat of invasion during the Napoleonic Wars. Ordnance Survey mapping is usually classified as either large-scale or small-scale, the Surveys large-scale mapping comprises maps at six inches to the mile or more and was available as sheets until the 1980s, when it was digitised. Small-scale mapping comprises maps at less than six inches to the mile, such as the one inch to the mile leisure maps. These are still available in sheet form. Ordnance Survey maps remain in copyright for fifty years after their publication, some of the Copyright Libraries hold complete or near-complete collections of pre-digital OS mapping. The origins of the Ordnance Survey lie in the aftermath of the last Jacobite rising which was defeated by forces loyal to the government at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In 1747, Lieutenant-colonel David Watson proposed the compilation of a map of the Highlands to facilitate the subjugation of clans, in response, King George II charged Watson with making a military survey of the Highlands under the command of the Duke of Cumberland. Among Watsons assistants were William Roy, Paul Sandby and John Manson, the survey was produced at a scale of 1 inch to 1000 yards and included the Duke of Cumberlands Map now held in the British Library. This work was the point of the Principal Triangulation of Great Britain. Roys technical skills and leadership set the standard for which Ordnance Survey became known. Work was begun in earnest in 1790 under Roys supervision, when the Board of Ordnance began a military survey starting with the south coast of England. A set of stamps, featuring maps of the Kentish village of Hamstreet, was issued in 1991 to mark the bicentenary. In 1801, the first one-inch-to-the-mile map was published, detailing the county of Kent, during the next twenty years, roughly a third of England and Wales was mapped at the same scale under the direction of William Mudge, as other military matters took precedence. It took until 1823 to re-establish a relationship with the French survey made by Roy in 1787, by 1810, one inch to the mile maps of most of the south of England were completed, but were withdrawn from sale between 1811 and 1816 because of security fears. It was gruelling work, major Thomas Colby, later the longest serving director general of Ordnance Survey, in 1824, Colby and most of his staff moved to Ireland to work on a six-inches-to-the-mile valuation survey
8.
Hiking
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Hiking is the preferred term, in Canada and the United States, for a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails, in the countryside, while the word walking is used for shorter, particularly urban walks. On the other hand, in the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, the word hiking is also often used in the UK, along with rambling, hillwalking, and fell walking. The term bushwalking is endemic to Australia, having been adopted by the Sydney Bush Walkers club in 1927, in New Zealand a long, vigorous walk or hike is called tramping. It is an activity with numerous hiking organizations worldwide. In the United States, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, a day hike refers to a hike that can be completed in a single day. However, in the United Kingdom, the walking is also used, as well as rambling. In Northern England, Including the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, fellwalking describes hill or mountain walks, hiking sometimes involves bushwhacking and is sometimes referred to as such. This specifically refers to walking through dense forest, undergrowth, or bushes. In extreme cases of bushwhacking, where the vegetation is so dense that human passage is impeded, the Australian term bushwalking refers to both on and off-trail hiking. Common terms for hiking used by New Zealanders are tramping, walking or bushwalking, trekking is the preferred word used to describe multi-day hiking in the mountainous regions of India, Pakistan, Nepal, North America, South America, Iran and in the highlands of East Africa. Hiking a long-distance trail from end-to-end is also referred to as trekking, in North America, multi-day hikes, usually with camping, are referred to as backpacking. The idea of taking a walk in the countryside for pleasure developed in the 18th-century, in earlier times walking generally indicated poverty and was also associated with vagrancy. Thomas West, an English priest, popularized the idea of walking for pleasure in his guide to the Lake District of 1778. To this end he included various stations or viewpoints around the lakes, published in 1778 the book was a major success. Another famous early exponent of walking for pleasure, was the English poet William Wordsworth, in 1790 he embarked on an extended tour of France, Switzerland, and Germany, a journey subsequently recorded in his long autobiographical poem The Prelude. His famous poem Tintern Abbey was inspired by a visit to the Wye Valley made during a tour of Wales in 1798 with his sister Dorothy Wordsworth. Wordsworths friend Coleridge was another keen walker and in the autumn of 1799, he and Wordsworth undertook a three weeks tour of the Lake District. John Keats, who belonged to the generation of Romantic poets began, in June 1818, a walking tour of Scotland, Ireland
9.
Mountain
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A mountain is a large landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is steeper than a hill. Mountains are formed through tectonic forces or volcanism and these forces can locally raise the surface of the earth. Mountains erode slowly through the action of rivers, weather conditions, a few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in huge mountain ranges. High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level and these colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains, different elevations have different plants and animals. Because of the less hospitable terrain and climate, mountains tend to be used less for agriculture and more for resource extraction and recreation, the highest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest in the Himalayas of Asia, whose summit is 8,850 m above mean sea level. The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars at 21,171 m, there is no universally accepted definition of a mountain. Elevation, volume, relief, steepness, spacing and continuity have been used as criteria for defining a mountain, whether a landform is called a mountain may depend on local usage. The highest point in San Francisco, California, is called Mount Davidson, notwithstanding its height of 300 m, similarly, Mount Scott outside Lawton, Oklahoma is only 251 m from its base to its highest point. Whittows Dictionary of Physical Geography states Some authorities regard eminences above 600 metres as mountains, in addition, some definitions also include a topographical prominence requirement, typically 100 or 500 feet. For a while, the US defined a mountain as being 1,000 feet or taller, any similar landform lower than this height was considered a hill. However, today, the United States Geological Survey concludes that these terms do not have technical definitions in the US, using these definitions, mountains cover 33% of Eurasia, 19% of South America, 24% of North America, and 14% of Africa. As a whole, 24% of the Earths land mass is mountainous, there are three main types of mountains, volcanic, fold, and block. All three types are formed from plate tectonics, when portions of the Earths crust move, crumple, compressional forces, isostatic uplift and intrusion of igneous matter forces surface rock upward, creating a landform higher than the surrounding features. The height of the feature makes it either a hill or, if higher and steeper, major mountains tend to occur in long linear arcs, indicating tectonic plate boundaries and activity. Volcanoes are formed when a plate is pushed below another plate, at a depth of around 100 km, melting occurs in rock above the slab, and forms magma that reaches the surface. When the magma reaches the surface, it builds a volcanic mountain. Examples of volcanoes include Mount Fuji in Japan and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, the magma does not have to reach the surface in order to create a mountain, magma that solidifies below ground can still form dome mountains, such as Navajo Mountain in the US
10.
Carneddau
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The Carneddau are a group of mountains in Snowdonia, Wales. They include the largest contiguous areas of ground in Wales and England. The range also encloses a number of such as Llyn Cowlyd and Llyn Eigiau. It is delimited by the Irish Sea to the north, the Conwy valley to the east, the area covers nearly 200 square kilometres, about 10% of the area of Snowdonia. The rocks from which the Carneddau are formed mostly originated in the Ordovician period between 500 and 440 million years ago, at that time, the continental land masses on either side of the Iapetus Ocean were moving together. The friction between these caused the floor of the ocean to melt, volcanoes to form and the land to rise up and this was the origin of the towering mountains that were to become Snowdonia and the other mountain ranges in Central and North Wales. Over time, these mountains have been eroded by the weather, the Carneddau were formed in this way and consist of volcanic and sedimentary rock. The last ice sheet retreated about 10,000 years ago and it left behind a landscape of smooth summits above erratic boulders and scree at the foot of cliffs on the eastern side of the mountains, and moraines that created shallow lakes in the cwms. This area was first colonised in Neolithic times, when Stone Age farmers started clearing the forests of oak and birch that covered all but the uppermost ridges. They were followed by Bronze Age people who cleared more forests, there are more than one thousand ancient monuments on the Carneddau estate. The remains of stone huts dating back to this time have been found. On the north slopes of Drosgl there are clusters of Iron Age huts. This settlement endured for a thousand years, lasting until after the Romans arrived, there are other huts elsewhere and traces of field systems and numerous hill forts situated at strategic upland sites. The Romans subdued the area and built a road, Bwlch y Ddeufaen across the slopes of the Carnedds. After they left in 410, the land was controlled once again by Welsh princes who schemed and formed alliances among themselves, the clearance of the native forests continued and at one time goats were the main form of livestock. Their feral descendants are found in the area today on the Glyderau. They were later followed by cattle and it was not till the 18th century desire for wool that sheep became numerous, by the thirteenth century, English ambitions were increasing under King Edward I of England in this part of Wales and the English castles encircled Snowdonia. It was in a bog in the foothills of Bera Mawr, at a place called Nanhysglain
11.
Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
12.
Topographic map
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Traditional definitions require a topographic map to show both natural and man-made features. A topographic map is published as a map series, made up of two or more map sheets that combine to form the whole map. A contour line is a line connecting places of equal elevation, however, in the vernacular and day to day world, the representation of relief is popularly held to define the genre, such that even small-scale maps showing relief are commonly called topographic. The study or discipline of topography is a broader field of study. Topographic maps are based on topographical surveys, performed at large scales, these surveys are called topographical in the old sense of topography, showing a variety of elevations and landforms. This is in contrast to older cadastral surveys, which primarily show property, the first multi-sheet topographic map series of an entire country, the Carte géométrique de la France, was completed in 1789. Topographic surveys were prepared by the military to assist in planning for battle, as such, elevation information was of vital importance. As they evolved, topographic map series became a resource in modern nations in planning infrastructure. Excluding borders, each sheet was 44 cm high and up to 66 cm wide, although the project eventually foundered, it left an indexing system that remains in use. TIGER was developed in the 1980s and used in the 1990, digital elevation models were also compiled, initially from topographic maps and stereographic interpretation of aerial photographs and then from satellite photography and radar data. Since all these were government projects funded with taxes and not classified for security reasons. Initial applications were mostly professionalized forms such as innovative surveying instruments, by the mid-1990s, increasingly user-friendly resources such as online mapping in two and three dimensions, integration of GPS with mobile phones and automotive navigation systems appeared. As of 2011, the future of standardized, centrally printed topographical maps is left somewhat in doubt, the various features shown on the map are represented by conventional signs or symbols. For example, colors can be used to indicate a classification of roads and these signs are usually explained in the margin of the map, or on a separately published characteristic sheet. Topographic maps are commonly called contour maps or topo maps. In the United States, where the national series is organized by a strict 7. 5-minute grid. Topographic maps conventionally show topography, or land contours, by means of contour lines, contour lines are curves that connect contiguous points of the same altitude. In other words, every point on the line of 100 m elevation is 100 m above mean sea level
