The reopening of Notre Dame showed me a similarity between architecture and geography.
Like geography, Notre Dame is large, complex and has abundant details, making it difficult to visualize the cathedral’s general layout, especially from ground level. Then, I saw an oblique-angle illustration of the cathedral that simplified the details and drew the eye to the large features. And, for the first time in my life, I could visual and understand the general layout of this remarkable edifice.
Geography is even larger, more complex and detailed than Notre Dame, making geography the more difficult of the two to visualize. This showed me that me that work was on the right track. It showed me that in order for people to visualize a large and complicated subject like geography, and perhaps see its beauty, they needed cartographic illustrations like the Essential Geography. The Essential Geography simplifies details, draws the eye to large features, and opens the door to geographic appreciation to the general population.