Gog and Magog

Gog and Magog

Everybody can probably rattle off a religious myth, or name an urban myth or two, but what about those of the cartographical variety? They aren’t so common anymore, and yet for centuries much of what was known about the world was little more than the figment of a mapmaker’s imagination. From about the seventh century, European maps went so far as to locate Paradise on the eastern edge of Asia, surrounded by a wall of flame, or later, simply water. At the same time, the northernmost reaches of these medieval maps often included labels for Gog and Magog, an evil territory to be feared and avoided. These lands along Russia’s northern shore were said to be inhabited by hordes of barbarians and marauding nomads waiting for a chance to swarm southward and wipe out civilization. Fortunately for the sake of the fearful, mapmakers put a wall around Gog and Magog too.

Ben Keene is the editor of Oxford Atlas of the World. Check out some of his previous places of the week.