Recognising Land Features

Many land features become instantly recognisable when you have to become accustomed to interpreting maps. Hills, valleys, saddles, and ridges all have characteristic contour patterns.

Valley On a map, the contours of a river valley appear as a series of v-shapes.
Hill A hill is recognisable as a series of rings, each one a closed contour.
Saddle A saddle, which is a depression between two hills, appears as two sets of circles, joined by curving contour lines.
Ridge Ridges appear as fingers of close, parallel contours, often with closed contours indicating high peaks.