Ancient Maps
There are some things geographers and historians did not understand yet…
How do we have very precise and rigorous ancient maps?
In this post I will give you some examples of some ancient maps full of paradoxes. Enjoy and awake your curiosity.
Piri Reis Map (1513)
The Piri (which means admiral) Reis map is dated from 1513, and has an inscription stating that it had been pieced together from a number of other old maps by a Turkish seafarer and one time named Piri Reis.
This map shows South America, a part of West Africa, and at the bottom, a part of the coast of
In 1949 was done an international exploration of
(picture of the sonar)
Piri Reis stated that he had used maps that dated back to the time of Alexandre the Great, who was born in 356 BC. (Let’s not forget that the Turkish conquered
Since the whole Antarctica was undoubtedly by that time covered with a
Furthermore,
The Piri Reis map suggests the existence on a sophisticated seafaring civilization at a time when, according to historians, civilization was only just evolving in the
When comparing the Piri Reis map with contemporary maps (being elaborated through navigation and with the available instruments at that time – 1500), the Piri Reis map is far more accurate regarding the coast shape and distances. We shall not forget that, at that time, Gerardus Mercator, the famous map maker that developed the method of projecting the (round) Earth on to a flat surface and mark it with Latitude and Longitude was still a child.
Piri Reis map has less than 4.5 degress of error. (Some people defend that this error may be due the transferring of data from older maps)
Also, in this map, the West coast of
Oronteus Finaeus (1531)
This map shows
Some people defend that this map does not show some important details, as for example, it fails to show the Palmer Peninsula, which stretches between north-western Antarctica to the coast of Patagonia. However, in reality, by the data provided by the sonars, these details do not exist. If the ice melted, there would be no peninsula, so the map is right.
The original maps had to be done at least 6.000 years ago, by people living there and good mapping capacities.
Philippe Buache (1737)
In 1737, Philip Buache publishes a map based on older ones, and shows the Antarctic continent divided into 2 islands. After several years of doing sonar research in
However, while the Piri Reis and Oronteus Finnaeus maps still showed the inland sea frozen over, this map shows the whole continent without ice.
This map was built using even older maps than the ones that were just presented before.
Hadji Ahmed (1559)
Now, travelling to the North Pole, I will talk about another map.
A Turkish Hadji Ahmad map of 1559 shows
However, if there was really no Bering Strait, the original map had to be more than 12.000 years ago, when Siberia and
Funny stuff hem… J
(Don’t forget that although I write different themes in separate posts, you are free to, and should, combine them and extrapolate from it … or not)
Go and read more at:
“Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings” by Charles Hapgood




