Once at a tender age, hearing the expression “at the end of the world” in fairy tales, I thought - where is this edge and what does it look like? If this is just the end of the Earth, and the void begins, then did they put a fence there so that no one would fall? Childhood is over, I learned about planets And solar system, galaxies and Universe. Even now it is difficult to imagine the immensity and assume where is the end of the universe. Probably, in this matter, we are all, like ancient people, imagining the Earth and universe.

How did our ancestors imagine the world?

Scientific attempts to describe the universe

Some peoples have advanced knowledge of the world deeper than the convenient legend of grandma's tales. The most advanced in this area were:

• Greeks. Officially, they were the first to suggest that The earth is round. But their theory was geocentric It was believed that the Sun and the planets revolve around the Earth. The atomists assumed that our system is not the only one, and represented the Universe as a cluster of systems, in which they were not far from the truth.
• Hindus. In the Vedas and Puranas, it was described in an allegorical form model solar system like planets going around the sun, and the Sun itself around the Earth. With the degradation of the priestly level, the projection drawings themselves began to be perceived by the servants as flat objects, from which the version of flat earth.
• Romans. Like the Greeks, they said geocentric Universe, while quite accurately calculating temporary length of orbits planets and their distance from the Earth.

Today

The fact that today much is known about our solar system, our and nearby galaxies, does not give confidence in the correctness of our ideas about the universe. Most of them are just conjectures. It is quite possible that our ideas will also fall into someone's discussions in 300 years.

The ideas of the ancients about the Earth were based primarily on mythological ideas.
Some peoples believed that the Earth is flat and rests on three whales that swim in the vast world ocean. Consequently, these whales were in their eyes the main foundations, the foot of the whole world.
The increase in geographical information is associated primarily with travel and navigation, as well as with the development of the simplest astronomical observations.

Ancient Greeks imagined the earth was flat. This opinion was held, for example, by the ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, who lived in the 6th century BC. He considered the Earth to be a flat disk surrounded by a sea inaccessible to man, from which stars come out every evening and into which stars set every morning. Every morning the sun god Helios (later identified with Apollo) rose from the eastern sea in a golden chariot and made his way across the sky.

The world in the view of the ancient Egyptians: below - the Earth, above it - the goddess of the sky; left and right - the ship of the sun god, showing the path of the sun across the sky from sunrise to sunset.

The ancient Indians imagined the Earth as a hemisphere held by four elephant . Elephants stand on a huge turtle, and the turtle is on a snake, which, curled up in a ring, closes the near-Earth space.

Babylonians represented the Earth in the form of a mountain, on the western slope of which Babylonia is located. They knew that there was a sea to the south of Babylon, and mountains to the east, which they did not dare to cross. Therefore, it seemed to them that Babylonia is located on the western slope of the "world" mountain. This mountain is surrounded by the sea, and on the sea, like an overturned bowl, the firm sky rests - the heavenly world, where, like on Earth, there is land, water and air. The heavenly land is the belt of the 12 constellations of the Zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. In each of the constellations, the Sun visits each year for about a month. The Sun, Moon and five planets move along this belt of land. Under the Earth is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend. At night, the Sun passes through this dungeon from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, in order to begin its daytime journey through the sky again in the morning. Watching the sunset over the sea horizon, people thought that it goes into the sea and also rises from the sea. Thus, the ancient Babylonians' ideas about the Earth were based on observations of natural phenomena, but the limited knowledge did not allow them to be explained correctly.

Earth according to the ancient Babylonians.

When people began to make long journeys, evidence gradually began to accumulate that the Earth was not flat, but convex.


Great ancient Greek scientist Pythagoras Samos(in the VI century BC) for the first time suggested the sphericity of the Earth. Pythagoras was right. But to prove the Pythagorean hypothesis, and even more so to determine the radius of the globe, it was possible much later. It is believed that this idea Pythagoras borrowed from the Egyptian priests. When the Egyptian priests knew about this, one can only guess, since, unlike the Greeks, they hid their knowledge from the general public.
Pythagoras himself, perhaps, also relied on the evidence of a simple sailor, Skilak of Karyanda, who in 515 BC. made a description of his voyages in the Mediterranean.

famous ancient greek scientist Aristotle(IV century BCe.) He was the first to use observations of lunar eclipses to prove the sphericity of the Earth. Here are three facts:

1. shadow from the earth falling on full moon, always round. During an eclipse, the Earth is turned towards the Moon. different parties. But only the ball always casts a round shadow.
2. Ships, moving away from the observer into the sea, are not gradually lost from sight due to the long distance, but almost instantly, as it were, "sink", disappearing behind the horizon line.
3. some stars can only be seen from certain parts of the Earth, while for other observers they are never visible.

Claudius Ptolemy(2nd century AD) - ancient Greek astronomer, mathematician, optician, music theorist and geographer. In the period from 127 to 151 he lived in Alexandria, where he carried out astronomical observations. He continued the teachings of Aristotle regarding the sphericity of the Earth.
He created his own geocentric system of the universe and taught that everything celestial bodies moving around the earth in empty space.
Subsequently, the Ptolemaic system was recognized by the Christian church.

The universe according to Ptolemy: the planets revolve in empty space.

Finally, an outstanding astronomer ancient world Aristarchus of Samos(late 4th - first half of the 3rd century BC) suggested that it is not the Sun, together with the planets, that moves around the Earth, but the Earth and all the planets revolve around the Sun. However, he had very little evidence at his disposal.
And it took about 1700 years before the Polish scientist managed to prove it. Copernicus.

Galileo's first telescopic observations led to the discovery of sunspots. However, their nature was incomprehensible to the first observers. During full solar eclipses prominences resembling fiery fountains were observed at the edge of the Sun.

The drawing depicts the view of the Sun according to the observations of A. Kircher and P. Scheiner in 1635 according to the drawing of the first. Spots on the Sun were then considered breaks in the outer hot layer of the Sun, under which there are much colder layers suitable for life. "Tailed luminaries" - comets - in ancient times and in the Middle Ages terrified superstitious people.

Even people close to science depicted comets in the form of swords, following the assurances of churchmen that they are signs of God's wrath. Other images are more realistic. For the picture on the postcard, images of comets from the second half of the 15th century were used.

Stonehenge is a Bronze Age observatory. This building of giant stones with horizontal bars laid on vertical blocks is located in the south of England.
It has long attracted the attention of scientists. But only recently modern methods archeology managed to prove that its construction began over 4000 years ago, on the border of the Stone and Bronze Ages. In plan, Stonehenge is a series of almost exact circles with a common center, along which huge stones are placed at regular intervals.

The outer row of stones has a diameter of about 100 meters. Their location is symmetrical to the direction to the sunrise point on the day of the summer solstice, and some directions correspond to the directions to the sunrise and sunset points on the equinoxes and on some other days.

Undoubtedly, Stonehenge served both for astronomical observations and for the performance of some rituals of a cult nature, since in those distant eras heavenly bodies were attributed divine significance. Similar structures have been found in many places in the British Isles, as well as in Brittany (northwest France) and the Orkney Islands.

Ideas about the world of the ancient Egyptians. In their ideas about the surrounding world, the ancient peoples proceeded, first of all, from the testimony of their sense organs: the Earth seemed to them flat, and the sky - a huge dome spread over the Earth.

The picture shows how the firmament rests on four high mountains located somewhere at the end of the world! Egypt nah-Xia in the center of the Earth. The celestial bodies seem to be suspended on a dome.

IN Ancient Egypt there was a cult of the sun god Ra, who travels around the sky in his chariot. This drawing is on a wall inside one of the pyramids.

Ideas about the world of the peoples of Mesopotamia. The ideas of the Chaldeans, the peoples who inhabited Mesopotamia, starting from the 7th century BC, were also close to the ancient Egyptian ones. According to their views, the Universe was a closed world, in the center of which was the Earth, resting on the surface of the world's waters and representing a huge mountain.

Between the Earth and the "dam of heaven" - a high impenetrable wall that surrounded the world - there was a sea that was considered forbidden. Everyone who tried to explore it was doomed to death. The Chaldeans considered the sky a large dome, towering over the world and relying on " the dam of heaven." It is made of solid metal by the supreme boron Marduk.

During the day, the firmament reflected sunlight, and at night it served as a dark blue background for the game of the gods - the planets, the moon and the stars.

The universe according to the ancient Greeks. Like many other peoples, they imagined the Earth as flat. This opinion, for example, was held by the ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus. He explained all the phenomena of nature on the basis of a single material principle, which he considered water. He considered the earth to be a flat disk, surrounded by a sea inaccessible to man, from which stars come and go every evening.

From the eastern sea in a golden chariot, the sun god Helios rose every morning and made his way across the sky. Later, the Pythagoreans departed from the theory of Thales, suggesting the roundness of the earth. A. Samossky argued that the Earth, together with other planets, revolves around the sun. For this he was exiled.

The system of the world according to Aristotle. The great Greek philosopher Aristotle understood that the Earth has the shape of a ball and cited one of the strongest proofs of this - the round shape of the Earth's shadow on the Moon during lunar eclipses. He also understood that the Moon is a dark ball, illuminated by the Sun and revolving around the Earth. But Aristotle considered the Earth to be the center of the world. He considered matter to be composed of four elements that form four spheres: earth, water, air and fire. Even further away are the spheres of the planets - the seven luminaries moving between the stars.

Farther away is the sphere of the fixed stars. Aristotle's teachings were progressive from the point of view of science, although his worldview was idealistic, since he recognized the divine principle. Later, all this was used by the church against the advanced ideas of the supporters of the heliocentric system of world order. This is a water clock - the main instrument for measuring time in antiquity, along with a sundial.

Astronomical representations in India. The sacred books of the ancient Hindus reflect their ideas about the structure of the world, which have much in common with the views of the Egyptians. According to these ideas, a flat Earth with a huge mountain in the center is supported by 4 elephants who stand on a huge turtle floating in the ocean.

In 400-650, a cycle of mathematical and astronomical works, the so-called Sidhanta, written by various authors, was created in India. In these works, we already meet a picture of the world with a spherical Earth in the center and circular orbits around it, close to the system of the world of Aristotle and slightly simplified compared to the system of Ptolemy.

The rotation of the Earth around its axis is mentioned several times. From India, astronomical knowledge began to spread to the west, primarily to the Arabs and peoples Central Asia. This is the sundial of the observatory in Delhi.

Observatories of the ancient Maya. In Central America in 250-900 reached high development astronomy of the Mayan peoples, who inhabited the southern part of modern Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. The main structures of the Maya have survived to this day. The picture shows a Mayan observatory (circa 900)

In shape, this structure reminds us of modern observatories, but the Mayan stone dome did not rotate around its axis and there were no telescopes at the bottom. Observations heavenly bodies were made with the naked eye using goniometers.

The Maya had a cult of Venus, which was reflected in their calendar, built on the synodic period of Venus (the period of changing the configurations of Venus relative to the Sun), equal to 584 days. After 900, the Mayan culture began to decline, and then ceased to exist altogether. Them cultural heritage was destroyed by conquerors and monks. The back depicts the head of the Sun God of the ancient Maya.

Ideas about the world in the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages, under the influence of the Catholic Church, there was a return to the primitive ideas of antiquity about a flat Earth and the hemispheres of the sky based on it. It depicts observations of the sky with the primitive instruments of astronomers of the 13th century.

The great Uzbek astronomer Ulugbek. One of the remarkable astronomers of the Middle Ages is Muhammedd Taragbaiblin Ulugbekblin, the grandson of the famous conqueror Timurablin. Having been appointed by his father Shakhruhomblin as the ruler of Samarblinkard, Ulugbekblin built an observatory there, where a giant quadrant with a radius of 40 meters was installed, which had no equal among goniometric objects of that time.

The catalog of positions of 1018 stars compiled by Ulugbekblin surpassed others in accuracy and was reprinted many times in Europe until the 17th century. Ulugbekblin determined the inclination of the ecliptic to the equator, the constant of the annual procession, he also compiled tables of the motion of the planets. Ulugbekblin's educational activities and his disregard for religion aroused the wrath of the Muslim church. He was treacherously killed. Here is shown a slab of the Ulugbekblin quadrant with degree divisions.

Determining position on the high seas using a sextant. The success of navigation and the era of the great geographical discoveries demanded a new development in astronomy, since the position of a ship in the ocean could only be determined by astronomical means. The drawing, made according to the original by I. Stradanus and the engraving by I. Galle (1520), shows the captain of the ship, determining the height of the Sun above the horizon with the help of a sextant - a device that allows, by turning a flat mirror, to combine the image of the Sun with the horizon and according to the reading on the scale determine the angle of elevation of the Sun above the horizon.

Latitude and longitude were determined graphically on the map. To determine latitudes and longitudes, until the 1111th century, the astrolabe was also used - a goniometric device with which it was possible to measure both the azimuths and the zenith distances of the luminaries. The back of the postcard depicts an astrolabe by the German astronomer of the second half of the 15th century, I. Regiomontanus, made in 1468.

Heavenly globe. The location of the constellations and stars in the sky was conveniently depicted on his reduced model - the celestial globe. The first celestial globes in Europe began to be made in mid-sixteenth century in Germany, however, in the East, such globes appeared much earlier - in the second half of the XIII century.

A celestial globe made in the observatory in Marat under the guidance of the remarkable Azerbaijani astronomer Nasi-raddin Tuya by master Mohammed bin Muyid el Ordi in 1279 has been preserved. The painting depicts a celestial globe of 1584. described and apparently used by the 16th century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. The celestial equator, ecliptic, declination circles and latitude circles are marked on it, converging to the celestial pole and to the ecliptic pole, respectively. The horizontal ring enclosing the globe means the horizon plane.

A vertical circle with divisions in the plane of the picture is the celestial meridian. The globe depicts the symbolic outlines of the constellations and the stars visible to the naked eye (except the weakest ones) are applied.

Astronomer's office early XVI century. The picture was made on the basis of a modern drawing by I. Stradanus, engraved by I. Galle around 1520. We see an astronomer of the early 16th century, a contemporary of Copernicus. Using a compass, he measures the position of a star on the planisphere (the image of a sphere on a plane). Nearby, on his table, is a celestial globe, an hourglass, a square, tables with which he compares his measurements.

On another table we see an armillary sphere (a model of the main circles of the celestial sphere), an eclimeter, books, and other instruments. In the foreground - a model of the Universe with a solid Earth in the center, planetary orbits are visible around it. In the background is a model ship of that era. The main task of astronomers of that time was to determine the positions of the stars and the moon as accurately as possible, according to which longitude was determined. In addition, astronomers of that era tried to improve the theory of planetary motion, based on the Ptolemaic system of the world.

Portrait of Copernicus. The great Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) revolutionized the worldview by proving that the Earth is not in the center of the world, but is an ordinary planet revolving around the Sun. The son of a merchant, Copernicus received an excellent education, first at the University of Krakow, and then at the universities of Italy. In addition to astronomy, he studied law and medicine.

Having become acquainted with the system of the world of Ptolemy, Copernicus became convinced of its inconsistency and already in his youth began to develop the heliocentric system of the world. In the course of this work, Copernicus compiled an accurate catalog of the positions of the stars, systematically observed the positions of the planets. Only after being convinced of the validity of his theory, Copernicus gave his work "On the Conversion celestial spheres» to print. The book was published on the eve of Copernicus' death.

World system according to Copernicus. According to the heliocentric system of the world, the center of our planetary system is the Sun. The planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn revolve around it (in order of distance from the Sun). The only celestial body that revolves around the Earth is the Moon. The value of the work of Copernicus is difficult to overestimate. F. Engels wrote about this: “The revolutionary act by which the study of nature declared its independence ... was the publication of an immortal creation, in which Copernicus challenged church authority in matters of nature - albeit timidly and, so to speak, only on his deathbed. ".

The theory of Copernicus was further developed in the works of I. Kepler and I. Newton, of which the first discovered the kinematic laws of planetary motion, and the second discovered the force that controls these movements, the force of universal gravitation. Great importance to confirm the system of Copernicus had the telescopic discoveries of Galileo and the propaganda of this system of the world by Giordano Bruno in the second half of the XVI - early XVII century.

For thousands of years, people have observed the movement of celestial bodies and natural phenomena. And they always wondered: how the Universe works. In ancient times, the picture of the structure of the universe was greatly simplified. People simply divided the world into two parts - Heaven and Earth. About how the firmament is arranged, each nation built its own ideas.

In contact with

The earth in the view of the peoples of antiquity was a large flat disk, the surface of which is inhabited by people and everything that surrounds them. The sun, moon and 5 planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), according to ancient people, are small luminous celestial bodies attached to a sphere that continuously rotate around the disk, making a complete revolution during the day.

It was believed that the earth's firmament is motionless and is in the center of the Universe, that is, every ancient people, one way or another, came to the conclusion: our planet is the center of the world.

Such a geocentric (from the Greek word Geo - earth) view was present in almost all the peoples of the ancient world - Greeks, Egyptians, Slavs, Hindus…

Almost all theories about the world order, the origin of heaven and earth that appeared at that time were idealistic, since they had a divine beginning.

But there were differences in the representation of the structure of the universe, since they were based on myths, traditions and legends inherent in different civilizations.

There were four main theories: different, but somewhat similar ideas about the structure of the universe by the ancient peoples.

Legends of India

The ancient peoples of India represented the earth as a hemisphere, leaning on the backs of four huge elephants, standing, in turn, on a turtle, and the black snake Sheshu closed the entire near-earth space.

The idea of ​​​​the structure of the world in Greece

The ancient Greeks claimed that the Earth has the shape of a convex disk, resembling a warrior's shield in shape. Around the land was surrounded by an endless sea, from which every night the stars came out. Every morning they drowned in its depths. The sun in the face of the god Helios on a golden chariot rose early in the morning from the eastern sea, made a circle in the sky and again returned to its place in the late evening. And the vault of heaven was held on its shoulders by the mighty Atlas.

The ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus imagined the Universe as a liquid mass, inside of which there is a large hemisphere. The curved surface of the hemisphere is the vault of heaven, and the lower, flat surface, freely floating in the sea, is the Earth.

However, this outdated hypothesis was refuted by the ancient Greek materialists, who provided convincing evidence of the roundness of the land. Aristotle was convinced of this, observing nature, how the stars change their height over the horizon, and the ships disappear behind the swell of the earth.

Earth through the eyes of the ancient Egyptians

The people of Egypt imagined our planet in a completely different way. The planet seemed flat to the Egyptians, and the sky in the form of a huge dome rested on four high mountains located at the four corners of the world. Egypt was located in the center of the earth.

The ancient Egyptians used the images of their gods to personify spaces, surfaces and elements. The earth - the goddess Gebe - lay below, above it, curving, stood the goddess Nut ( starry sky), and the god of air Shu, who was between them, did not allow her to fall to Earth. It was believed that the goddess Nut swallowed the stars every day and gave birth to them again. The sun daily passed its way through the sky on a golden boat, which was ruled by the god Ra.

The ancient Slavs also had their own idea of ​​the structure of the world. The world, in their opinion, was divided into three parts:

Between themselves, all three worlds are connected, like an axis, by the World Tree. In the branches of the sacred tree live the stars, the Sun and the Moon, and at the roots - the Serpent. The sacred tree was considered a support, without which the world would collapse if it was destroyed.

The answer to the question of how in ancient times people represented our planet helps to find ancient artifacts that have survived to this day.

Scientists find the first prototypes of geographical maps in different countries, they are known to us in the form of images on the walls of temples, frescoes, drawings in the first astronomical books. In ancient times, man sought to pass on information about the structure of the world to subsequent generations. Man's idea of ​​the Earth largely depended on the relief, nature and climate of the places where he lived.

For a long time, the Earth was considered the center of the universe. 4) The system of the world according to Aristotle (philosopher). Center - motionless Earth, around - 8 rotating spheres (they are solid and transparent). Celestial bodies are fixed on the spheres. The 9th sphere provides the movement of the remaining spheres - the engine of the Universe. The universe is bounded by the motionless sphere of stars.

For many centuries, the teachings of Ptolemy dominated, but in the Middle Ages science and trade began to actively develop ... In the 14th - 16th centuries. Portugal and Spain were opened - this changed geographical map peace. Trip around the world F. Magellan finally proved the sphericity of our planet.

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