The original Erdapfel is the oldest surviving Terrestrial globe and is more than 500 years old.
The original globe is still on display in Nuremberg Germany, but the surface became illegible with the passage of time. It was made by geographer Martin Behaim, who was also a philosopher, merchant, and navigator in the service of King João II of Portugal. The globe shows an enlarged Eurasian continent without the North and South American continents, representing the world as it was known before 1492. The vast ocean west of the European continent inspired Columbus to navigate in this direction to reach Asia, but instead he found himself in the Americas. The map (facsimile from 1908) made by E.G. Ravenstein is based on both the original globe and an earlier 1847 facsimile by E.F. Jomard. It contains all important data from the original and is the best available source for a replica, but it is not an exact match. For this globe, the overall design was not altered with the exception of colors using a bit of artistic license. Some small imperfections obtained from the source image still remain.
