Political map

Political maps are a type of map which portray features such as international boundaries, the locations of cities, road networks, and other important elements of the world's human geography.

On political maps, physical features are usually shown as gray relief shading. This shading depicts surface features such as mountains, hills, and valleys. Water features are shown in blue. Solid lines and filled-in areas indicate perennial water features; dashed lines and patterns indicate intermittent features. Boundaries and political divisions are defined with both lines and colored bands; they vary according to whether a boundary is internal or international. Corncerning cities, many regional political maps depict four catergories of cities or towns. The largest are frequently shown in all capital letters (e.g., LONDON).