This GCSE Geography quiz will test you on symbols found on OS maps. Reading maps involves several different skills - a knowledge of scales, directions and the symbols used by map makers (cartographers) to indicate certain landscape features on maps. Early maps drawn by monks or explorers were like works of art, with landscape features being added as drawings of the actual feature. It was realised that much more information could be placed on a map if simple symbolic representations of the real world were used.
The systematic mapping of Britain was first carried out for military purposes and the maps carry the name of that original Ordnance Survey (the word 'ordnance' means military supplies). Although there are other manufacturers of maps that cover the UK, Ordnance Survey (OS for short) are probably the best known and most often used.