Globe

Have you ever held the whole world in your hands? I’m round and smooth, and with a gentle push, I can spin and spin! You can see big blue oceans, swirly white clouds, and patches of green and brown land where mountains rise and cities sparkle. I sit on desks in classrooms and on shelves in cozy bedrooms, waiting for an adventure. With just one finger, you can travel from the coldest, iciest poles to the warmest, sunniest beaches. Hello! I am a Globe, your very own model of the big, beautiful planet Earth!

For a very long time, people didn't know their world was round like me. They thought it was flat like a pancake and worried that if they sailed their ships too far, they might fall right off the edge! But some very clever people, like a thinker named Aristotle in ancient Greece, started to notice clues. They saw that when a ship sailed away, its bottom part disappeared first, as if it were going over a hill. They also noticed the Earth made a round shadow on the moon. A long, long time later, a man named Martin Behaim in Germany decided to make a model of the world based on these ideas. Around the year 1492, he created the very first globe that we still have today! He called it the 'Erdapfel,' which means 'Earth Apple.' It was a big step, but his globe was missing some huge pieces of land because explorers hadn't found them yet! Then, brave sailors like Ferdinand Magellan decided to see for themselves. They got in their ships and just kept sailing in one direction. After a very long journey, they ended up right back where they started, proving that the Earth really was a big, round ball, just like me!

Today, I help you learn about all the amazing places and people that share our world. You can find your own country, then trace a path to a place you've only read about in stories. Many years after the first explorers, astronauts went into space. On December 7th, 1972, they took a famous picture of Earth called 'The Blue Marble.' It showed everyone that our planet looks just like me—a beautiful, swirling blue-and-white ball floating in space. When you spin me, remember that we all live on this one planet together. I am here to show you that the world is full of wonders to explore and that we are all connected, like one big family on our amazing home, the Earth.