Meteorology By Aristotle

There are two inhabitable sections of the earth: one near our upper,
or nothern pole, the other near the other or southern pole; and their
shape is like that of a tambourine. If you draw lines from the centre
of the earth they cut out a drum-shaped figure. The lines form two
cones; the base of the one is the tropic, of the other the ever visible
circle, their vertex is at the centre of the earth. Two other cones
towards the south pole give corresponding segments of the earth. These
sections alone are habitable. Beyond the tropics no one can live:
for there the shade would not fall to the north, whereas the earth
is known to be uninhabitable before the sun is in the zenith or the
shade is thrown to the south: and the regions below the Bear are uninhabitable
because of the cold.

(The Crown, too, moves over this region: for it is in the zenith when
it is on our meridian.)

So we see that the way in which they now describe the geography of
the earth is ridiculous. They depict the inhabited earth as round,
but both ascertained facts and general considerations show this to
be impossible. If we reflect we see that the inhabited region is limited
in breadth, while the climate admits of its extending all round the
earth. For we meet with no excessive heat or cold in the direction
of its length but only in that of its breadth; so that there is nothing
to prevent our travelling round the earth unless the extent of the
sea presents an obstacle anywhere. The records of journeys by sea
and land bear this out. They make the length far greater than the
breadth. If we compute these voyages and journeys the distance from
the Pillars of Heracles to India exceeds that from Aethiopia to Maeotis
and the northernmost Scythians by a ratio of more than 5 to 3, as
far as such matters admit of accurate statement. Yet we know the whole
breadth of the region we dwell in up to the uninhabited parts: in
one direction no one lives because of the cold, in the other because
of the heat.