MAP ONE

Source: http://www.mypersonalartist.com/product/view/hand-drawn-wedding-maps.html

This map does have north facing up. Although there are no prominent buildings shown on this map, there are trees, rivers and lakes/ponds. The freeway and the roads and their names are easily readable and distinguished. The freeway, roads, and features on this map will help the guests of this wedding reception keep an eye out for these features to guarantee they are heading in the correct direction. The small flag also symbolizes the location of a golf course. Another interesting feature is the heart on the map. The map says this is a map for a wedding reception, so the heart clearly indicates where the reception is located (I noticed this before I realized there was a key to what the heart symbolized in the lower right hand corner).

MAP TWO

Source: http://spider.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/~pimhof/contact.html

Here is a map of the University of Heidelberg. If you compare this map to a campus map of UCLA, it would look somewhat similar. They both would have several buildings along with symbols that would have a key to translate the symbols. You can see on this map there are several “P” for parking structures (I know the UCLA map also has this symbol). For this map, the buildings have numbers. I am sure there is a long list of these numbers that correlate the name of the buildings. Many students and visitors of both the University of Heidelberg and UCLA would use this sort of map for similar reasons. Such as finding where their classes are located, or how to get to the library from the current building a person is located. You can see there is a river that borders at least part of the university (from what we can see). In German, river is “neckar.” Even if I had no experience in the German language, many people could guess that because of the thick, long blue strip. There are also lines going across it, which we assume to be bridges. Obviously, maps are used worldwide, and used in many different languages. However, what is interesting is that maps rarely do change when translating them into English. These buildings and streets will always have the same German name that will be difficult for a non-German speaker to pronounce.

MAP THREE

Source: http://www.united-states-map.com/tabloid.htm

Here is a map of the United States of America. Growing up, many American children had to memorize all fifty states during elementary school, and most likely all the capitals and five Great Lakes too. On this map, all the capitals are located. If you look closely, the borders of each of the states are dashed. The Great five lakes clearly stand out too. The red lines are all the many freeways that transport hundreds and thousands of people each day. The interstate 80 goes from California to New Jersey. I read that some of its routes are historical dating back to the Oregan trail and the first transcontinental railroad. The map also shows the mountain ranges throughout the United States (which many American children also learned in elementary school). These mountain ranges tend to be brown and yellow. The green areas I assume are valleys or grasslands where agriculture can grow or are flatlands. The oceans are clearly located and of course the typical blue color. Of course the Alaska and Hawaii are in their own little boxes, which I’m sure all USA maps have to include all fifty states. Even though they are not located where they are relative to all the other states, I bet many Americans would know around where their location is located. You can also see the longitude and latitude on this map. These show us regions’ exact positioning. As an American and looking at this map, I know many of the general details of where the oceans are located, the mountains, lakes, states, capitals, and even what the terrain is like. This shows that possibly many other Americans also have a good general mental map of our country.