Both maps below show South Africa highlighted. The old Mercator map (1569) inflates South Africa about 1.3× at 29°, and the new Equal Earth map shows it at its true 1,219,090 km². Pan or zoom either map and the other follows, so the difference is visible at every scale.
That 1.3× inflation is why South Africa dominated old schoolbook maps and maps of the world's great powers. Hover South Africa on either map to highlight it on both at once, then compare it with Greenland.
South Africa: key figures
| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| South Africa | 1,219,090 km² | 1,592,863 km² | 1.3× |
| Greenland | 2,166,086 km² | 25,576,494 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | n/a | n/a |
Old maps drew South Africa at about 1,592,863 km². The truth is 1,219,090 km², a difference of 31% that school atlases carried for centuries.