Well known for his theories that the Earth was flat and the center of the universe, Ptolemy influenced Western geography for more than a thousand years:

For many Europeans in the fifteenth century, the world looked much the same as it had to Ptolemy in the second century. His work on geography was the basis for most , scholarship throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, before exploration and improved technology began to provide better information. . . .

In the Ptolemaic world view, Africa, Antarctica, and part of Asia were all joined, forming a large southern land mass marked simply "Terra Incognito." The exact shape of Africa was not known, and the northern part was depicted as much broader and squarer than it actually is.

Source: "The Eye of the Beholder: Western Maps of Africa," Yale Map Collection .