shouldn't the height be enough?
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The height/altitude is usually determined by the value of the contour interval say 0,50,100,150 or 200 (using contour interval of 50m), it will only give you the value of the y-axis (height).
The x-axis represents the distance between the two points, say A and B. Whenever a contour intercepts a point between the distance A and B, its distance away from starting point A should be measured and converted to the actual measurement using a scale if provided, say we got 2000m, you would use this as the x value. After this you just look at what value that contour was say it was 50m- so you would now have (2000,50) to plot that onto your graph. Repeat this for the other intercepts before connecting the points on your graph to produce a hill looking graph xD