| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| Italy | 300,267 km² | 555,494 km² | 1.9× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew Italy at about 555,494 km² km². The truth is 300,267 km² km² — a difference of 85%% that school atlases carried for centuries.