<P> Seventeen hundred years after Eratosthenes's death, while Christopher Columbus studied what Eratosthenes had written about the size of the Earth, he chose to believe, based on a map by Toscanelli, that the Earth's circumference was one - third smaller . Had Columbus set sail knowing that Eratosthenes's larger circumference value was more accurate, he would have known that the place that he made landfall was not Asia, but rather the New World . </P> <P> Eratosthenes now continued from his knowledge about the Earth . Using his discoveries and knowledge of its size and shape, he began to sketch it . In the Library of Alexandria he had access to various travel books, which contained various items of information and representations of the world that needed to be pieced together in some organized format . In his three - volume work Geography (Greek: Geographika), he described and mapped his entire known world, even dividing the Earth into five climate zones: two freezing zones around the poles, two temperate zones, and a zone encompassing the equator and the tropics . He had invented geography . He created terminology that is still used today . He placed grids of overlapping lines over the surface of the Earth . He used parallels and meridians to link together every place in the world . It was now possible to estimate one's distance from remote locations with this network over the surface of the Earth . In the Geography the names of over 400 cities and their locations were shown: this had never been achieved before . Unfortunately, his Geography has been lost to history, but fragments of the work can be pieced together from other great historians like Pliny, Polybius, Strabo, and Marcianus . </P> <Ul> <Li> The first book was something of an introduction and gave a review of his predecessors, recognizing their contributions that he compiled in the library . In this book Eratosthenes denounced Homer as not providing any insight into what he now described as geography . His disapproval of Homer's topography angered many who believed the world depicted in the Odyssey to be legitimate . He also commented on the ideas of the nature and origin of the Earth: he had thought of Earth as an immovable globe; while on its surface was a place that was changing . He had hypothesized that at one time the Mediterranean was a vast lake that covered the countries that surrounded it; and had only become connected to the ocean to the west when a passage had opened up sometime in its history . </Li> <Li> In the second book is his discovery about the circumference of the Earth . This is where, according to Pliny, "The world was grasped ." Eratosthenes described his famous story of the well in Syene, described above . This book would now be considered a text on mathematical geography . </Li> <Li> His third book of the Geography contained political geography . He cited countries and used parallel lines to divide the map into sections, to give accurate descriptions of the realms . This was a breakthrough, and can be considered the beginning of geography . </Li> </Ul> <Li> The first book was something of an introduction and gave a review of his predecessors, recognizing their contributions that he compiled in the library . In this book Eratosthenes denounced Homer as not providing any insight into what he now described as geography . His disapproval of Homer's topography angered many who believed the world depicted in the Odyssey to be legitimate . He also commented on the ideas of the nature and origin of the Earth: he had thought of Earth as an immovable globe; while on its surface was a place that was changing . He had hypothesized that at one time the Mediterranean was a vast lake that covered the countries that surrounded it; and had only become connected to the ocean to the west when a passage had opened up sometime in its history . </Li>

When was earth known to be circular and its circumference measured