Old world
The Old World is a historical name for the continents of the earth known to Europeans before the discovery of America in 1492 : Europe , Africa, and Asia .
In the 2nd century, Ptolemy described the known world in his atlas Geographike Hyphegesis . The medieval worldview based on this shows in a schematic wheel (cycle map ) the settlement areas of the descendants of Noah's three sons , Sem in Asia, Ham in Africa and Japhet in Europe.
In contrast, there is the New World with North and South America .
Australia and Antarctica are not included as they were not known at the time these terms were created.
In the biogeography sold under the names Old World and altweltlich the faunal Palaearctic and Palaeotropical or they characterize species combined.
