Chapter 1.1:What Is Geography?

Imagine that some aliens from outer space are visiting the Earth. As they fly past in their spaceship, they will probably discover that the Earth is a heavenly body that moves around the sun. We call such a heavenly body a planet. The Earth is one of nine planets moving around the sun. These planets and the sun make up the solar system.

As their space ship flies closer to the Earth's surdace, the aliens will see the Earth very much like you see it in the satellite picture of the Earth below. First, they will see large land and water surfaces. The large land surfaces are called continents and the large water surfaces are called oceans.

Do you know that it was the ancient Greeks who gave us the word 'geography'? This word comes from two words, geo, meaning 'Earth', and graphy, meaning 'description'.

Ocean: A large water surface