"Every great people of antiquity as a rule regarded its own central city or most holy place as necessarily the centre of the earth. ...The book of Ezekiel speaks of Jerusalem as in the middle of the earth, and all other parts of the world as set around the holy city. Throughout the "ages of faith" this was very generally accepted as a direct revelation from the Almighty regarding the earth's form. ...Ezekiel's statement thus became the standard of orthodoxy to early map-makers. The [13th century] map of the world at Hereford Cathedral, the maps of Andrea Bianco, Marino Sanuto, and a multitude of others fixed this view in men's minds and doubtless discouraged during many generations any scientific statements tending to unbalance this geographical centre revealed in Scripture. ...Nor was this the only misconception which forced its way from our sacred writings into medieval map making: two others were almost as marked. ...First of these was the vague terror inspired by Gog and Magog. ...the mediæval map makers took great pains to delineate these monsters and their habitations on the maps. For centuries no map was considered orthodox which did not show them. The second conception was derived from the mention in our sacred books of the "four winds." Hence came a vivid belief in their real existence, and their delineation on the maps, generally as colossal heads with distended cheeks, blowing vigorously toward Jerusalem."