"In this empire, the art of cartography was taken to such a peak
of perfection that the map of a single province took up an
entire city and the map of the empire, an entire province. In
time, these oversize maps outlived their usefulness and the
college of cartographers drew a map of the empire equal in
format to the empire itself, coinciding with it point by point.
The following generations, less obsessed with the study of
cartography, decided that this overblown map was useless and
somewhat impiously abandoned it to the tender mercies of the sun
and seasons. There are still some remains of this map in the
western desert, though in very poor shape, the abode of beasts
and beggars. No other traces of the geographical disciplines are
to be seen throughout the land." Jorge Luis Borges in "On Rigor
in Science," part of "A Universal History of Infamy," 1946
Credits: Image of "Superficies comparees ave celle de la
Republique Argentine" from "Mapping Latin America: A
Cartographic Reader."