Layout of a Simple Map

A simple Map would have many detail Layers, all of which covered the same extent. As more detail is incorporated at higher zoom levels the size of the layers increases with depth. The tiling mechanism obviates the need to load the entire layer; a sub-set of the layer representing solely the region of interest can be loaded.

This type of map can be considered to have a single Layer Stack

Layout of a More Complex Map

What is a Layer?

Layer Loading Strategies