The Ancients Knew Earth Was A Sphere At Least 2,000 Years Before Columbus

The Ancients Knew Earth Was A Sphere At Least 2,000 Years Before Columbus

We have been told in school that it was Christopher Columbus the person who found out that the Earth is a sphere and set out on a journey to prove it.

It is just one of the many “little” lies that have been told in history classes today.

But Christopher Columbus did not discover the Earth was spherical. Actually, Columbus was about 2,000 years too late and he greatly underestimated the Earth’s circumference.

So who discovered or proved the Earth is a sphere?


Pythagoras was one of the originators of the idea, Aristotle provided physical evidence and Eratosthenes determined that the Earth was in fact, round.

Eratosthenes (276-194 B.C.) the father of “Geography,” made the discovery around seventeen hundred years before Columbus.

He speculated that the Earth was shaped like a ball based on the stories and myths of Greek sailors before proving his assumption.

Eratosthenes, a Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist, is best known for being the first ever person on Earth who calculated the circumference of the Earth, and he did so by never leaving Egypt.

He was able to calculate the circumference of our planet by applying a measuring system using stadia (A Stadion or stade, was an ancient Greek unit of length equal to a typical sports stadium at that time).

Even though Eratosthenes’ discoveries are numerous, among the most important ones is his calculation of the tilt of the Earth’s axis but it is believed that he also was able to calculate the distance from the Earth to the Sun, thousands of years before “mainstream science.”

Eratosthenes was also the person who created the first map of the world incorporating parallels and meridians with the available geographical knowledge of the era.

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