Minecraft wiki entry for Mapping, associated text: Regardless of which technique is used, it's helpful to be systematic in the order you craft the maps. For example, you might make Map #0 (prior to the Pretty Scary Update this was designated "map_0") at the center of the area you want to cover. When maps are crafted (eight paper surrounding a compass) they are initially "Empty Maps" (data value 395). Holding an empty map and right clicking with it will activate it (data value 358) and draw the current terrain to a radius of 100-120 blocks. The map will be centered on a block that is a multiple of 128 on the x & z axis and will cover an area of 128×128 blocks. Thus, if you are at or near the center block, a zoom-level 0 map is nearly complete when crafted from an empty map.