Maps cannot offer an objective, complete representation of the world because selecting what to include, what to center, and what projection to use is unavoidably shaped by the mapmaker's politics, religion, and commercial interests. What a map leaves out and where it places the center encode the maker's ideology as much as any explicit content.
Any flat rendering of a sphere must distort either area, shape, distance, or direction, so the mapmaker chooses which error to accept based on purpose. The Mercator projection preserves bearings for navigation while inflating high-latitude landmasses, meaning a technical decision about distortion also silently enlarges some regions relative to others.
The Hereford Mappa Mundi (c. 1300) places Jerusalem at the exact center of the world and orients east (not north) at the top toward the Garden of Eden, arranging geography to narrate Christian salvation rather than to guide travel. It is a theological argument drawn as a map, where spiritual significance, not spatial accuracy, dictates placement.
Rather than judging historical maps against modern accuracy, read each as a document revealing what its society knew, feared, worshipped, and wanted to claim at a specific moment. The gaps, monsters, and distortions become evidence of a civilization's mind rather than mere errors.