Maps today help us locate the nearest gas station or ATM on our in-car navigation system, but this use of locating what is near or surrounds a location is not new. Maps from pre-historic times provided important locational information – what was where and how to get from place to place. A map can be a relatively simple iconic device, which can be read and interpreted with only a little training. These graphic representations of the real world could be traced in sand or painted on a cave wall and shared through time. Maps even preceded written language and number systems and are found in some format in most cultures through time as a graphical language. Learning to read this language and interpret it without ambiguity is not as simple as first suggested. This complexity has increased as technology has allowed creation of 3D and 4D interactive maps which allow anyone with internet access the ability to investigate different places, topics and times and produce their own map. Today the ability to read and interpret maps is increasingly important as industry, business and government communicates within their organization and the public using maps. Becoming aware of what a “map” shows depends partly on what the senses can register of the representation as a whole. It also depends on recognition of elements in the representation that are meaningful to the observer in the sense that these elements are credible indicators of spatial features. Based on that recognition, the nature of these elements and their spatial pattern might infer thoughts about historic or ongoing processes. This interpretation will be influenced by the expertise and needs of the observer.