| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| Belarus | 206,698 km² | 584,955 km² | 2.8× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew Belarus at about 584,955 km² km². The truth is 206,698 km² km² — a difference of 183%% that school atlases carried for centuries.