| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| Eritrea | 123,678 km² | 133,572 km² | 1.1× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew Eritrea at about 133,572 km² km². The truth is 123,678 km² km² — a difference of 8%% that school atlases carried for centuries.