Cartography

Cartographers are those people who often make standard maps which are accurate and which use highly exact scales. You already know about the need and use of scale and symbols in a map. You students may not essentially be able to have such command. in the modern time. There are also various technologies and methods used in drawing a map. Photographs taken by satellites from high up in the sky can be developed into required maps. Here you learn how to draw a good outline of Nepal.

A map is defined as a sketch drawn in a paper making an imaginary line of a particular place. It displays the political boundaries, population, physical features, natural resources, roads climate, elevation (topography) and economic activities etc. The main aim of a map is to show the location of particular place or region. There are various types of map, some of them are as follow:

1. Cadastral
2. Atlas
3. Wall
4. Topographical
5. Physical
6. Political

Nepal has a definite location, extension, and inclination. It also has various bulges and recordings along its border. Though you cannot draw in exact scales of every portion, you must be careful about the relative size and their position.

Follow the following steps to draw an outline map of your country. you can accomplish after several practices.

• Start with a rectangle 10 cm *6 cm. (for a bigger map fitting on a page of a copy, double all measurements, i.e. 20 cm *12 cm)
• Draw lines 2 cm away from each edge, and short dotted line in the middle.
• Now you have AB = 6 cm, AD = 10 cm, DG = 2 cm, AM = 2 cm, BO = 2 cm, ER = 3 cm, RG = 3 cm.
• Notice how these divisions mark corners of our country with Mustang jutting northwards at approximately 5 cm from each edge.
• To maintain the standard inclination of Nepal, draw so as to have the following pairs of points roughly at the same level:
  Pair 1: Mahendranagar (Kanchanpur) and north-east mustang (Dhaulagiri)
  Pair 2: Nepalgunj (Banke) and north-east Taplejung
  Pair 3: Birgunj (persa) and north-east Ilam (main fold along the eastern border of Nepal)
• The exact details of the outline are not important but you should practice drawing the outline several times, first looking at the map above, and then from memory.
• Add the scale. If you do the map twice as big, then 1 cm = 40 km.
• Now practice drawing the boundaries of the development regions.
• Learn the approximate position of the different towns, including where you live yourself.

Major conventional symbols used in a map

Colour Codes used in map

• Brown: Land or earth features = contour lines, sand areas secondary or gravel roads
• Light Blue: Water features = canals, coastlines, dams, lakes, swamps, plain, rivers, water towers
• Dark Blue: National freeways
• Green: Vegetation features = Cultivated fields, nature and game reserve, boundaries, woodland
• Black: Construction features = roads, tracks, railways, building, bridges, dam, walls, communication towers
• Grey: Construction features = built up areas, cadastral information
• Red: Construction features = national, arterial and main roads, lighthouse, and marine lights
• Pink: International boundaries