Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments. Geographers explore both the physical properties of Earth’s surface and the human societies spread across it.
Geography is something you do, not just something you know. Those who study geography identify relationships between these varied subjects, graft those relationships onto a geographic space, and explain why certain systems are where they are. A common shorthand for geography is "the why of where."
One of the oldest tenets of geography is the concept of place. As a result, place has numerous definitions, from the simple “a space or location with meaning” to the more complex “an area having unique physical and human characteristics interconnected with other places.”
Students interact with maps to analyze the geography of the New York region and identify how elevation influenced the development of trade, trade routes, and the growth of cities in that region.
Regions, large or small, are the basic units of geography. The Middle East is considered a political, environmental, and religious region that includes parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Using geography, Eratosthenes and other Greeks developed an understanding of where their homeland was located in relation to other places, what their own and other places were like, and how people and environments were distributed. These concerns have been central to geography ever since.
