Geography

Geography is the scientific study of the locational and spatial variation of both physical, biological and human phenomena on Earth. The word derives from the Greek words γη or γεια ("Earth") and γραφειν ("to describe" and "to write,").

Related Topics:
Earth - Greek

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Geographers not only investigate what is where on Earth but also why it is there and not somewhere else. They then find whether these "locations in space" are the result of natural or human causes and what their consequences are for people.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As William Hughes - who taught the geography of the Holy Lands to divinity students at King's College London - put it in an address in 1863:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:"Mere place names are not geography. To know by heart a whole gazeteer full of them would not, in itself, constitute anyone a geographer. Geography has higher aims than this: it seeks to classify phenomena (alike of the natural and of the political world insofar as it treats of the latter) to compare, to generalise, to ascend from effects to causes and in doing so to trace out the great laws of nature and to mark their influence upon man. In a word, geography is a science, a thing not of mere names, but of argument and reason, of cause and effect."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~