Africa in perspective

After our discussion on maps, I remembered a lesson I had on maps that discussed the politics and power of a map. While I was very unaware of maps used in these ways, I have become very aware of it now and often times skeptical of them.

The biggest thing I learned was that Africa is HUGE. I always knew it was large, but I never realized it was HUGE until it was put into perspective.

Maybe this is common fact for others, but once I saw this map I began to wonder why I never considered the real size of Africa. Is it actually represented to show its size on maps but I dismiss it or overlook it because its Africa? I don't think so, but its a possibility. Is the subjective part of maps in the actual map product or in our minds and the way we chose to interpret them and select what is important or not?