A fantasy map is type of map design that is a visual representation of an imaginary

Imaginary

Imaginary can refer to:* Imaginary , a concept in sociology* Imaginary number, a concept in mathematics* Imaginary time, a concept in physics* Imagination, a mental faculty* Object of the mind, an object of the imagination* Imaginary friend...

 or fictional geography

Fictional geography

Fictional geography is the use of maps, text and imagery to create lands and territories to accompany works of fiction. Depending on the completeness and complexity of the work, varying media, levels of collaboration and a number of other factors, the depiction of geographical components to works...

. While some fantasy maps accompany works of fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

 and are considered fictional maps, fantasy maps are created to show imaginary places and are not necessarily included in works of literary fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

. Depending on the completeness and complexity of the map, the depiction of geographical components can range from simple drawings of a small area as in The Twenty-One Balloons

The Twenty-One Balloons

The Twenty-One Balloons is a novel by William Pène du Bois, published in 1947 and awarded the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1948. The story is about a retired schoolteacher whose ill-fated balloon trip leads him to discover an island full of great wealth and...

 by William Pene du Bois

William Pène du Bois

William Pène du Bois , was a French American author and illustrator. He was best known for The Twenty-One Balloons, published in April 1947 by The Viking Press...

 to an entire fictional world as in The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...

by Tolkien to even an entire galaxy as in Star Trek

Star Trek

Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...

. Fantasy maps can also include abstract works of art, combine existing cartographic information to present an imaginary location, or combine existing cartographic information to show a different perspective of a location.

In popular culture

• Lewis Carroll
  Lewis Carroll
  Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
  
  's Sylvie and Bruno Concluded tells of a fantasy map that had "the scale of a mile to the mile." It was later referenced (possibly independen of Carroll) by comedian Stephen Wright
  Stephen Wright
  Stephen Wright is an English football defender who currently plays for Hartlepool.-Liverpool:Wright joined Liverpool on a youth contract in June 1996, choosing to join Liverpool over rivals Everton, the club he supported as a boy...
  
  , who claimed that it was not detailed enough and planned to obtain another in which one foot of space in real life was represented by three feet on the map.
• Jorge Luis Borges
  Jorge Luis Borges
  Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
  
   wrote a short story about a map made to 1:1 scale. It is an homage to Lewis Carroll's work mentioned above. The story, "On Exactitude in Science
  On Exactitude in Science
  "On Exactitude in Science" or "On Rigor in Science" is a one-paragraph short story by Jorge Luis Borges, about the map/territory relation, written in the form of a literary forgery.-Plot:The story elaborates on a concept in Lewis Carroll's Sylvie and Bruno Concluded: a fictional map that had "the...
  
  ", is collected in A Universal History of Infamy
  A Universal History of Infamy
  A Universal History of Infamy, or A Universal History of Iniquity , is a collection of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges, first published in 1935, and revised by the author in 1954. Most were published individually in the newspaper Critica between 1933 and 1934...
  
  .
• J. R. R. Tolkien
  J. R. R. Tolkien
  John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
  
  's Middle-earth
  Middle-earth
  Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
  
   is a renowned example of a fantasy map.
• Nikolas Schiller
  Nikolas Schiller
  Nikolas Schiller is an American blogger, a prominent digital map artist in the blogosphere, a vegetarian, and a civil rights activist who lives in Washington, DC...
  
  's kaleidoscopic
  Kaleidoscope
  A kaleidoscope is a circle of mirrors containing loose, colored objects such as beads or pebbles and bits of glass. As the viewer looks into one end, light entering the other end creates a colorful pattern, due to the reflection off the mirrors...
  
   aerial photography
  Aerial photography
  Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position. The term usually refers to images in which the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted, and photographs may be taken by a photographer, triggered remotely or...
  
  of urban areas