topography

The USGS publishes topographical maps which have way more interesting stuff on them than most maps. Buy one or look one up at the public library and discover where all the old gold mines are in your neighborhood.

To*pog"ra*phy (?), n. [F. topographie, Gr. ; a place + to write.]

The description of a particular place, town, manor, parish, or tract of land; especially, the exact and scientific delineation and description in minute detail of any place or region.

⇒ Topography, as the description of particular places, is distinguished from chorography, the description of a region or a district, and for geography, the description of the earth or of countries.

Brande & C.

© Webster 1913.