This study investigates the use of 2D and 3D presentations of maps for the assessment of distances in a geographicalcontext. Different types of 3D representations have been studied: A weak 3D visualisation that provides staticmonocular depth cues and a strong 3D visualisation that uses stereoscopic and kinetic depth cues. Two controlledexperiments were conducted to test hypotheses regarding subjects’ efficiency in visually identifying the shortestdistance among a set of market locations in a map. As a general result, we found that participants were able tocorrectly identify shortest distances when the difference to potential alternatives was sufficiently large, butperformance decreased systematically when this difference decreased. Noticeable differences emerged for theinvestigated visualisation conditions. Participants in this study were equally efficient when using a weak 3Drepresentation and a 2D representation. When the strong 3D visualisation was employed, they reported visualdiscomfort and tasks were solved significantly less correct. Presentations of intrinsic 2D content (maps) in 3Dcontext did, in this study, not benefit from cues provided by a strong 3D visualisation and are adequatelyimplemented using a weak 3D visualisation.