The Beatus Map or Beatine Map is one of the most significant cartographic works of the European Early Middle Ages: It was originally drawn by the Spanish monk Beatus of Liébana, based on the accounts given by Isidore of Seville, Ptolemy and the Bible. Although the original manuscript is lost, there remain several copies extant, which retain a high fidelity with respect to the original. The Map is shown in the prologue of the second book of Beatus' work Commentary on the Apocalypse. Its main goal is not to depict a cartographically exact depiction of the world and its continents, but to illustrate the primitive Diaspora of the Apostles. The European World View in the High Middle Ages According to the descriptions from the Book of Genesis (which was one of the main sources for Beatus), the Earth was thought to be a flat plane, and sustained the vault of heaven, where the Sun, the Moon, and other minor luminaries like planets and stars, moved. There were two water masses. The waters above the firmament were contained by the vault of heaven and occasionally fell to Earth in as rain, when the floodgates opened. The waters below, fed the rivers, the streams and the great salt water masses. In this mappa mundi, the world is represented as a circular disc surrounded by the Ocean. The Earth is divided in three continents: Asia (upper semicircle), Africa (right lower quadrant) and Europe (left lower quadrant), each of which belonged to the descendants of the three sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth. The continents are separated by water streams and inner seas, including the Mediterranean Sea (Europe-Africa), the River Nile (Africa-Asia), the Bosporus, and the Aegeus Sea (Europe-Asia). In the center of the world lies Jerusalem, sacred to both Christianity and Judaism. This is where Abraham was about to sacrifice his own son, Isaac, and where the Passion and Resurrection of the Christ happened. The concept of Jerusalem as an ombilicum mundi was typical in medieval Christian theology. For example, in the Divine Comedy, Dante starts his journey to Hell from here. The description of the continents Asia At the eastern end of Asia lies the Garden of Eden, the earthly paradise where it is never cold nor hot, and where trees and wood of all kinds grow. In its center stands the Tree of Life, and next to it, a fountain