Introduction
Map Reading is the ability to interpret the signs and symbols used in depicting the various features on the map, understanding what they mean and being able to use it for navigation.
When you visit a camping ground, you may be given a map, or have it printed on a souvenir you are given. It sometimes comes with a compass.
Why you need a map

• The map is meant to help you locate features of interest within the camping area.
• The map can also provide information concerning areas of potential danger or that which is off-limits.
• A map should help you Find your way if you should get lost or stray to an unfamiliar area.
• Maps can help you calculate the distance between your current location and your target destination.
• it could be used to determine the best route to a point of interest.

A topographic map is a down-scaled and detailed two dimensional representation of real life geographical features that are found in a specific area.
It practically transforms and represents our 3-dimentional world and it's features, in to it's 2 dimensional replica on a pice of paper with distance and proximity accurately scaled down.

Legend

Map makers use a number of signs and symbols to represent various map elements when creating a map and legends also known as a key are placed on a map to tell the reader what these signs stand for.
Understand the legend on a map is the first step to reading a map.
^{source ...Map of Solomon islands showing the legend}
Locating the map's legend
A map can carry one or more legend areas located in the margin or any free space on the map. It often comes in the form of a table but can assume any form. Most of the information in this post are the things you will find on a maps legend.

Basic structure of a topographic map
The features found on a topographic map can be grouped under the following sub headings, Relief, Water, Cultural. Topographic maps make effective use of contour lines to tell us how specific features rise and fall above or bellow sea level.

Contour lines

Contour lines are concentric circles or lines drawn on a topographic map, indicateting the steepness or gentleness of slopes, the ground elevation or depression.
The vertical distance between two contour lines is known as a contour interval. Your map will tell you what its contour interval is. After every four contour lines, the fifth line is bold and it is called an Index contour.

^{Source... A map showing contour lines}

Relief features

A standard topographic map will represent relief features using a brown coloured contour line. The features represented with brown contour lines are mostly hills mountains, plains, and valleys,

Water

To indicate the various bodies of water, topographic maps make use of blue colour and blue contour lines. Examples of things that will be blue are oceans, rivers, streams, lakes and swamps.

Cultural

These are man made features on the map depicted with black colour. These includes features like roads, rail tracks, land boundaries, buildings, airports and built up areas.

Map Title
Locate the map's title which will likely be placed in a very conspicuous place. Most likely places are, top or bottom margin, In a very large body of water on the map. Written with very large font size. The title often tells us what area is being covered by the map.

Scale
The scale of a map tells the reader what the relationship between the map's distance and the real world distance is. The scale could be saying, every inch on the map means one mile in the real world.
This is indicated as (1Inch = 1 Mile or ) "1 : 100,000" one inch on the paper means one hundred thousand inch in the real world.
^{source ... On this scale, one ench on paper equals 250,000 inch on ground and the spacing between contour lines is 200 meters}

North Arrow
Most maps will find a convenient place to place the arrow showing which direction is North. Some maps will also show you the true North and the magnetic North.
This will help the camper know which direction the map is facing. With the help of a compass and this arrow, you can get the correct orientation for the map.

Date
The map often carries a date, this will help tell if most especially the Cultural and other features are up to date. This is important because the topography of a region can change with time, new manmade structures can be erected, hill can get taller, and land slides can change the nature of a countryside. For this reason, it is good to confirm that your map is fairly new.

Insert maps
This are smaller maps inserted in the main map for additional information. It could be a locator map which helps you understand that this is a map of Nigeria and the locator map now shows that Nigeria is in Africa. Thematic inserts, detail insert, extension insert
^{source ...Map of Solomon islands showing two insert maps}

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Conclusion

There are yet a lot to learn before you become good at reading a map, you still need to know how to use a map alongside a Compass. You will also have to know how to read a compass... visit my blog for more updates on map reading.