History
The idea of a geographical zone was first hypothesized by the ancient Greek scholar Aristotle. He said that the earth was divided into three types of climatic zones, based on their distance from the equator.
Thinking that the area near the equator was too hot for habitation, Aristotle dubbed the region around the equator (from 23.5° N to 23.5° S) the "Torrid Zone." He reasoned that from the Arctic Circle to the pole was permanently frozen. He called this uninhabitable zone the "Frigid Zone." The only area that Aristotle believed was liveable was the "Temperate Zone", lying between the "Frigid Zone" and the "Torrid Zone". However, humans have inhabited almost all climates on Earth, including inside the Arctic Circle.
As knowledge of the Earth's geography improved, a second "Temperate Zone" was discovered south of the equator, and a second "Frigid Zone" was discovered around the Antarctic. Aristotle's map was vastly oversimplistic, although the general idea was correct. Today, the most commonly used climate map is the Köppen climate classification, developed by German climatologist and amateur botanist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940), which divides the world into five major climate regions, based on average annual precipitation, average monthly precipitation, and average monthly temperature.
Read more about this topic: Geographical Zone
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