In 1929, a map dated 1513 was discovered in one of the ancient palaces of Constantinople.
The map is a compilation work, in the preparation of which about 20 cartographic sources were used, including very ancient ones. Piri Reis explicitly states that the oldest maps he used inhabited world belong to the era of Alexander the Great, perhaps the author used some of the materials of the deceased Library of Alexandria. On the other hand, in the descriptions relating to the recently discovered South American lands, there are references to the evidence of Portuguese navigators - contemporaries of Piri Reis. There are also references to the use of a certain "Card of Columbus"; apparently, this does not mean a map made by Columbus himself or his associates, but more old map used by Columbus. Unfortunately, neither the book nor the map of Columbus has come down to us. But several sheets of the map from the Bahriye atlas miraculously survived and were published in Europe in 1811. But then they were not given much importance.
The Piri Reis map is currently in the Topkapı Palace Library in Istanbul, Turkey, but is not normally on display for the public.
What is the mystery of the Piri Reis map? Here are just some versions, as an answer to this question.
The first version is mysterious. The map accurately shows the coastline of Antarctica.
In 1953, an unidentified Turkish naval officer sent a copy of the Piri Reis map to the US Navy Hydrographic Office. There, the map fell into the hands of a cartographer by the name of Walters (M. I. Walters), who was required to establish the historical or practical value of the discovered artifact. To evaluate the map, Walters, as chief engineer of the bureau, sought the help of retired Captain Arlington Mallery (Arlington Humphrey Mallery), an expert on ancient maps who had previously worked with Walters. Mallery, after spending a lot of time, discovered what kind of map projection was used on the map. To check the accuracy of the map, he made a grid and superimposed the Piri Reis map on the map of the world: the map was absolutely accurate. After his work, he stated that the only way to create a map of such accuracy is aerial photography. Also, to build a map of Piri Reis, you must have knowledge of spherical trigonometry, which was developed and described only in the 18th century.
The authenticity of the Piri Reis map was not in doubt. Graphological examination of marginal notes confirmed that they were made by the admiral's hand. The most mysterious is precisely the fact that the coast depicted on the map, according to Professor C. Hapgood, exactly corresponds to the coast of the subglacial part of the mainland, the shape of which became known only in the 1950s, after large-scale seismographic studies were carried out (a joint British-Swedish research expedition carried out an intensive seismic reconnaissance of the southernmost continent through the thickness of the ice cover). This judgment is supported by the conclusions of the US military, who studied the subglacial relief of Antarctica in the late 1950s, who, to Professor Hapgood's request regarding the correspondence between the image on the Piri Reis map and the real coast of the mainland, gave the following answer:
July 6, 1960
Subject: Admiral Piri Reis Map
To: Professor Charles H. Hapgood
Keene City College, Keene, New Hampshire
Dear Professor Hapgood,
Your request for an assessment of some of the unusual details on the 1513 Piri Reis map has been considered. The claim that the bottom of the map shows the Princess Martha Coast, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, and the Palmer Peninsula is reasonable. We believe that this conclusion is the most logical and, in all likelihood, correct interpretation cards.
At the bottom of the map, the geographic features show a very marked resemblance to seismic scan data from the Swedish-British Antarctic Expedition in 1959. geological relief under the glacier there. This indicates that the coast was mapped before it was covered with ice on top. The glacier in this region today is about a mile thick.
We have no idea how the data on this map can correlate with the estimated level of geographical knowledge in 1513.
- Harold Z. Ohlmeyer, Lieutenant Colonel, Commander, 8th Reconnaissance Squadron, USAF
The greatest number of disputes is caused by the presence in the lower part of the Piri Reis map of land, which is identified by the aforementioned Mullery and Hapgood with the coast of Antarctica, officially discovered only in 1820. However, there are no reports of any detailed exploration of Antarctica and South America in the XIV-XV centuries, the results of which could form the basis of the map. At the same time, the hypothetical coast of Antarctica on the map is connected to the coast of South America, that is, there is no Drake Strait (which in reality has a width of almost a thousand kilometers).
The version is described in detail.
At present, all the arguments both in favor of the opinion about the image of Antarctica on the Piri Reis map and against it are equally insufficiently convincing, primarily due to the great antiquity of this work and the lack of documentary evidence in sufficient quantities. All arguments and disputes are based only on common sense and assumptions.
The opinion that the map depicts Antarctica may be erroneous. This is confirmed by many inconsistencies with modern geography areas that can be mistaken for inaccuracies of the map, in particular, in the part where South America is depicted: duplication of rivers, the absence of the Drake Passage between the southern tip of South America and the "freezing" (according to the image) Antarctica.
The “correspondence” itself raises additional questions.
Firstly, the glacier constantly descends into the ocean and, by its movement, inevitably changes the relief of the mainland, leveling it and carrying detrital material into the ocean. Therefore, the modern under-ice relief should already be very different from the real ancient relief of the mainland before its glaciation.
Secondly, it is known that the mass of the ice sheet creates an additional load on the “light” continental crust, due to which it “sinks” deeper in the mantle substance than it should in the absence of this load. By modern estimates, the continental plate of Antarctica is “drowned” down to depths of up to half a kilometer. Consequently, during the period when there was no ice in Antarctica, the coastline ran elsewhere, and part of the modern shelf was land. It is extremely doubtful that the coastline in this case corresponded to the modern subglacial relief.
An interesting fact is that the Chicago scientist Charles Hapgood, who thoroughly studied the Piri Reis map, is convinced that the center ancient map, which became the prototype of the admiral's map, was located in Cairo, or its environs. That is, the ancient cartographers were the Egyptians who lived in Memphis, or their more ancient ancestors, who made this place a reference point.
Hapgood offers several possible explanations for the connection on the Piri Reis map of the coast of Antarctica and South America:
- In the southern part of the South American mainland, the Piri Reis map shows signs of duplication of the same area. It is possible that when the map was created by Piri Reis himself or, perhaps, by the author of one of the source maps, fragments of ancient maps depicting the same area were misunderstood as neighboring ones, as a result, a section of the South American coast up to 1500–2000 km long was duplicated. Thus, South America was "stretched" to the south just the width of the Drake Passage, or even more.
- The coasts could indeed be united by a glacier if the source from which this part of the map is copied falls during the cooling period, while the coast of Antarctica is depicted according to the map of the warm period.
Version two. On the map is the eastern coast of South America.
The Piri Reis map is one of the first to supposedly show the Americas.
It was compiled 21 years after the voyage of Columbus and the "official" discovery of America. And it marks not only the exact coastline, but also the rivers, and even the Andes. And this despite the fact that Columbus himself did not map America, having sailed only to the Caribbean!
The map of Piri Reis depicts, and, according to a number of researchers, quite accurately, real-life, but unknown at the time of its creation, geographical objects. In particular, the Andes are depicted in the depths of the South American continent, before the discovery of which there were several decades left, the islands shown off the coast of South America are well identified with the Falklands, also discovered only in the second half of the 16th century. The mouths of some rivers, in particular the Orinoco, are shown on the Piri Reis map with an "error": river deltas are not indicated. Perhaps this is not an error, but an expansion of the deltas over time, as happened with the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia in the last 3500 years.
The results of a close study of the depicted coast speak in favor of an alternative theory, according to which the “additional” land is just a part of the South American coast, probably studied by Portuguese navigators, but in the image it is highly distorted (curved to the right).
There are various comparative analysis matching the coastline of South America!
Piri Reis claimed that Columbus knew where he was sailing, thanks to a book that fell into his hands. The fact that Columbus's wife was the daughter of the Grand Master of the Order of the Templars, which had already changed its name by that time, had significant archives of ancient books and maps, indicates possible path purchase of a mysterious book. There are many facts indirectly confirming that Columbus owned one of the maps that served as the source for the Piri Reis map. For example, Columbus did not stop the ships at night, as was customary because of the fear of running into reefs in unknown waters, but went under full sail, as if he knew for sure that there would be no obstacles. When a riot began on the ships due to the fact that the promised land was still not shown, he managed to convince the sailors to endure another 1000 miles and was not mistaken - exactly after 1000 miles the long-awaited shore appeared. Columbus carried a supply of glass ornaments with him, hoping to exchange them for gold from the Indians, as recommended in his book. Finally, each ship carried a sealed packet with instructions on what to do if the ships lost sight of each other during a storm. In a word, the discoverer of America knew well that he was not the first.
Version sources: https:// ru. wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_Piri Reis. http:// www. wikiwand.com/en/Map_Piri Reis
Version three. Map of the coastline of Central America.
If you look closely at the lands, discovered by Columbus in his travels, we will see that the first three travels brought only the discovery of the islands. And only the fourth showed the coastline of Columbus, along which he followed for about 2000 kilometers. 
Travel routes of Christopher Columbus
The fourth voyage, even, according to Columbus himself, was the most difficult of all he had seen. Constant storms and currents battered the flotilla, people were exhausted and angry at fate. However, despite all these difficulties, the mapping of the coastline was still carried out, and the data were entered into Personal diary Columbus, of which no trace remains, except for a copy of the ship's log, edited by Bartolomeo las Casas. However, not everything was recorded in the ship's log.
Consider carefully the coastline traced by Columbus on his last voyage.
Let's turn our attention to the east coast of Central America, including Panama, Honduras and Yucatan. A more detailed study turns out that this coast is the very unknown part of the H. Columbus map, which he used when compiling his own Piri Reis map. In this case, the gaps in the last journey of Columbus himself are also clarified. It turns out that the Genoese explored part of the coast of Yucatan, then, as is known from official chronicles, he rounded Honduras and, following along Panama, turned to Jamaica, where he ran aground the remaining ships that had become unusable. Here he wrote several letters. One of them was intended for Nicholas de Ovando, the governor of Fr. Espanyol asking for help. The rest carried information about open lands and were intended for the monarchs of Spain. Letters were sent with two confidants who, with the help of the Indians, having overcome about two hundred kilometers of expanses of water on pirogues, two weeks later, successfully reached the shores of Hispaniola. And only a year later, Ovando, under pressure from the public, deigned to agree to organize a rescue mission. Further fate We know Columbus. However, it is not clear how the map compiled by the Genoese fell into the hands of Reiss? There are many options here. Columbus himself, enraged at the treachery of the Spanish monarch, could also convey it. The map, along with a cargo of valuable documents and jewelry, heading to Rome on two papal galleys in 1505, could have been captured by the militants of Kemal Reis, or the corsairs of Barbarossa. But, one way or another, she still ended up in the hands of a no less skilled navigator and cartographer than Columbus himself.
Reis himself wrote in his notes that he scaled all the pieces of maps used, bringing them to a single size. However, one small but very important inconsistency remains. On the map of Piri Reis, the coast of Central America, represented by Columbus, is located at the longitude of modern South America! And the size of the coast is commensurate only with a large mainland than Panama, Honduras and Yucatan combined! It is possible that Piri Reis used data on South America, superimposing a map of Central America from Columbus on its location, using distorted evidence (fortunately, it is not surprising to confuse these outlines, given their comparability at that time).
Only one Columbus until the “last” considered the lands he discovered - India, depicting the fauna corresponding to the place on his map. But Piri Reis, without suspecting anything, took and exactly copied all the features of the Genoese map when compiling his own ???
Version four. India.
Eratosthenes, the first of the scientists of antiquity, using the gnomon and applying the similarity of triangles, calculated the circumference of our planet and its radius. There is also a map of the world belonging to his hand. Eratosthenes in his "Geography" determined the circumference of the spherical Earth at 252 thousand stadia, i.e. 39,590 km, which differs from the true circumference the globe along the equator only 410 km. It is difficult to determine how close these estimates are to reality, since it is not known which stage Eratosthenes used...
Map of Eratosthenes. The data for compiling the map, Eratosthenes partially drew from the already known voyage of Nearchus along the coast South-East Asia, as well as the voyages of Pytheas and Hanno. 
Concepts of the world from Eratosthenes
It is on the map of Eratosthenes that India is shown turned counterclockwise so that the Great Ganges flows straight into Pacific Ocean! At this point, it can be assumed that Piri Reis painted India and China in the western part, using information from the Library of Alexandria from Eratosthenes and not thinking about any New World! Indeed, when drawing together-overlaying the contours of the mainland taken from the western part of the map of the Turkish admiral on the map of modern Southeast Asia, an interesting coincidence of the outlines of the coastal contour is obtained. But naturally all with the same inevitable loss individual islands and with the distortion of a significant part of the mainland itself, which is fully explained by the inaccuracy of the application and the incompleteness of knowledge about the lands in the Middle Ages. The issue with the island on the map of Piri Reis also becomes clear. According to the maps of P. Toscanelli and his follower M. Beheim, it is very likely that this island is nothing more than Sipangu - Japan. The concept of Sipangu came to us from the descriptions of the travels of Marco Polo, who in the 13th century explored Central Asia, being for a long time in the service of Kublai Khan. It was Sipangu, the island of fabulous wealth, that H. Columbus was looking for when discovering new lands, since he was completely sure that he was located near the regions of Asia described by Mark Polo.
Combination of the coastline of the Piri Reis map with the area of the modern coast of Indochina (by Varyag)
Well, finally, the mystery of the Piri Reis map, which has tormented everyone for so long, is resolved !? However, it is too early to draw conclusions!
There is a question with a coordinate binding?
Looking at the map of Piri Reis, it is striking that the parallels are not indicated on it latitudes and longitude. We see rumba!
We will consider this issue in the next section. To be continued...
Most people cannot imagine that it is possible to see a map of Antarctica without ice. Yes, what is there most of us cannot even imagine this continent without an ice cover. It seems impossible. After all, we are used to seeing the majestic Antarctica under centuries-old layers of ice. But scientists from NASA succeeded ...
The continent of Antarctica is the largest area on the planet Earth, which is completely covered with ice. But what is under it? NASA experts have a project called BedMap2. During the project, scientists calculated the total volume of ice in 
Antarctica. These calculations were carried out in order to establish the forecast of sea level rise in the future. To do this, the experts needed to have a thorough knowledge of the entire topography of the mainland, including its vast valleys and well-hidden mountain ranges.
So scientists and created new map Antarctica without ice. The most impressive discovery was the valley under the Byrd Glacier. Note that this valley is the deepest point among all continents. The valley is below sea level at a distance of 2780 meters. And scientists for the first time managed to get detailed pictures of the mountains 
Gamburtsev. But the Gamburtsev Mountains are under a layer of ice 1.6 km thick.
A unique, new map was created based on data on the level of surface elevation, base topography, and ice thickness. These data were obtained using satellite photography, as well as aerial and ground photography. In addition, electromagnetic instruments, radars, sound waves were also used. All these efforts have helped map Antarctica without ice.
Few people know that deep under the thickness arctic ice be the most large telescope in the world. It is installed in a neutrino observatory called "Ice Cube".
Confirmation of the ancient age of the maps of Piri Reis, Orontius Fineus and Philippe Buache by the results of ice drilling in Antarctica
The thickness of the Antarctic ice cap varies from 300-400 m to 3-4 km. According to academician V.M. Kotlyakov, the results of ice drilling in Antarctica indicate that it existed for at least 400-800 thousand years. Although it is very difficult to determine his age.
A fragment from an interview with V. Kotlyakov gives an idea of the age of the Antarctic ice:
Alexander Gordon.
When last time Was Antarctica free of ice?
Kotlyakov. Nobody knows for sure. But it is assumed that glaciation in Antarctica arose no later than 5 million years ago, most likely 30-35 million years ago this continent is constantly under ice. Thus, the development of nature in the northern and southern hemispheres was not at all the same. In the Northern Hemisphere, the glacier either spread or disappeared completely, while in the Southern Hemisphere the ice existed almost continuously.(Antarctica: climate. Transmission by A. Gordon)
The same point of view is shared by the doctor of geographical sciences D. Kvasov:
« 20-30 million years ago, the volume of Antarctic glaciers was already close to modern. At that time, a rather warm climate prevailed in temperate and polar latitudes. The ice sheet of East Antarctica thawed along the edges, but did not decrease in size - much more snow than now».
D. Kvasov wrote that “The warming will also lead to heavy snowfalls. The largest ice sheets can even increase their thickness as a result of this. They will produce fewer icebergs and melt a little at the edges, but will not decrease in volume until the amount of melt exceeds the amount of snow water received annually by glaciers. For this to happen, warming by 10-12 degrees is needed. Only after that the glaciers of Antarctica will begin to disintegrate, and the level of the ocean will rise…. With less warming, ocean levels may even drop slightly as a result of the thickening of Antarctic glaciers.”(Glaciation of Antarctica, or What is considered a catastrophe in the history of the Earth)
Head of the marine geophysical detachment in the second Antarctic expedition 1956–1957. N.P. Grushinsky and head of the winter quarters of the fourth and seventh Antarctic expeditions in 1958–1959. and 1961–1962 A.G. Dralkin also wrote that last glaciation Antarctica came about 10 million years ago. This glaciation has remained constant to this day.Since the end of the Tertiary period, Antarctica has not experienced much warming and remains covered with ice.
(Antarctica).
Returning to the interview with academician V.M. Kotlyakov, I will also quote the following words of his:
« The borehole at Vostok station showed for the first time that the temperature existing on Earth, despite the warming, one and a half degrees below those temperatures that were during the periods of interglacials we studied
(three interglacials during the last 420 thousand years), that is current temperature one and a half degrees did not reach the upper limit known to us. This means that over the past 400 thousand years, the climate on Earth has not fundamentally changed..»
In another work by V. Kotlyakov, it is said that in certain periods of the Pleistocene (epoch of interglacials), the temperature in Antarctica (as well as in the Arctic) increased by 10-12 degrees. This is a very curious moment, which seems to give a chance to supporters of the 20-30-thousand-year-old maps of Piri Reis, Orontius Fineus, Philippe Buache and other cartographers and navigators. However, it contradicts the above statement of the same V. Kotlyakov, and is not confirmed by any other information, so I would not accept it as an evidence base. Moreover, the results of the drilling of Antarctic ice show that in the last and penultimate ice ages(12-120 and 140-220 thousand years ago) the temperature in Antarctica was about 6 degrees. lower than modern, with temperature minimums 20, 60 and 110 thousand years ago, that is, just at the time when, according to C. Hapgood, Antarctica was ice-free.
Moreover, also because all other data indicate the invariance of the Antarctic ice cover, according to at least, for the last 5 million years.
Confirmation of the ancient age of the maps of Piri Reis, Orontius Fineus and Philippe Buache by paleogeodynamic reconstructions of Antarctica
Another important argument in favor of the invariability of the Antarctic glacier over the past 20-23 million years is the location of Antarctica during the entire Neogene in an area close to the modern one, that is, in close proximity to the southern geographic pole. True, position south pole during this period of time changed several times. However, even with a change in the inclination of the earth's axis by 15-30 degrees, which was noted 12 thousand years ago, at least half of Antarctica always remained in polar latitudes, and the rest of it 24-12 thousand years ago should also have been bound by ice, because that the earth's axis was then located almost vertically and the sun's rays almost did not fall on Antarctica. That is, there is not even a hint that the temperature on it increased by more than 10-12 degrees.
ABOUT ancient age The Piri Reis map also testifies to the separation of Antarctica from South America 34 (according to other sources, 23) million years ago. And on this map they are shown together.
***
Based on the foregoing, we can repeat the conclusion made in the book “ Battles of the Ancient Gods" and the work " The Earliest Maps of the Earth Were Compiled in the Paleogene" that the original maps of Piri Reis, Orontius Fineus, Philip Buache and other cartographers and navigators were compiled in the Paleogene or the first half of the Neogene period (34-20 million years ago). And the opponents of this do not have so many arguments to continue the dispute.
Read my others works "The earliest maps of the Earth were compiled in the Paleogene" and "The world map of Orontius Phineus in 1531 - a map of the bright half of the Earth in the early Miocene era (23 -16 million years ago)? "
I invite everyone to further discussion this material on pages in topics And
© A.V. Koltypin, 20
11
Scientists really don't like it when their coherent theories are invaded unexplained facts. This undermines the credibility of scientific thought, and sometimes even forces one to reconsider judgments that seemed unshakable. Therefore, as far as possible, they try to evaluate such facts critically, or even just put them out of sight.
Out of place artifact
The library of Istanbul's Topkapı Palace contains an unusual map of the world, compiled at the beginning of the 16th century. It rarely becomes part of the expositions for the public, but not at all because it is poorly preserved or uninteresting to tourists. It's just that the map doesn't fit very well with historians' ideas of what people could and could not know at that time.
In fact, what Dr. Ethem discovered in 1929 in the former Sultan's library is only part of a map made no later than 1513 by an Ottoman admiral known as Piri Reis. It was carefully drawn on pieces of gazelle skin tanned and sewn together. Who and when divided it and where the rest of the parts disappeared is unknown.
The Turkish historian was struck by the discrepancy between the accuracy of the image, the drawing technique and the time when Piri Reis lived. The map has a grid of intersecting lines - the so-called loxodrome, which were used to plot the course and were characteristic feature medieval nautical charts. Now it would be called loci. Such charts were created for sailors sailing only from port to port in the 14th-16th centuries. They were not suitable for long-distance ocean voyages, since they did not take into account the sphericity of the Earth.
Dr. Ethem drew attention to the fact that the coastline of South America was very accurately marked on the Piri Reis map, although Europeans had not yet climbed so far south by that time. Meanwhile, the document was dated absolutely exactly, since it was in the fully preserved admiral's archive and was provided with explanatory notes.
15 years later, one of the high-ranking Turkish officers sent a strange map for study in the United States. In the Hydrographic Department of the Fleet, experts shrugged their hands in surprise. An old map imposed on the modern map and found a complete match. American experts decided that such an accurate map could only be obtained if its compilers used aerial photography.
In addition, it was possible to create such a map only by knowing spherical trigonometry, the first provisions of which were developed only in the 18th century. Meanwhile, the belonging of the admiral's card to XVI century confirmed with latest methods research. By the way, in addition to both Americas, the Piri Reis map showed the coast of Antarctica, and even free of ice!
Naturally, historians were quick to call the mysterious map an inappropriate artifact. Or, in other words, violating the chronology of the evolution and development of technology accepted by the scientific community.
The Man from Nowhere
However, Piri himself admitted: he is not responsible for the cartography and intelligence data, his business is just a combination of ancient and modern sources into one map. He never concealed the fact that he did not see even a hundredth of those coasts, the outlines of which he depicted with his own hand, and he preferred to drive ships along the coast from port to port.
But the recognition of the "cabinet" admiral only confuses the whole thing. Neither ancient nor medieval maps that have come down to us could help Piri Reis to compile a document of such accuracy. Although the maps of the seas in the Middle Ages were more accurate than land maps, they did not develop at all. That is, cartographers simply redrawn more ancient directions.
Since the time of Ptolemy, scientists have assumed the existence of a certain southern continent and even placed its vague outlines on their maps. However, Russian sailors first saw Antarctica in early XIX century. It can be assumed that some ancient navigators also sailed far to the south, saw the Antarctic ice and depicted their outlines on the map. But Piri Reis mapped the coast of Queen Maud Land exactly as it would have looked without the 1.5 km thick ice sheet! The languidness of the calculations of the Turkish admiral was confirmed in 1953 using sonars and seismic sounding.
For building geographical map- displaying a sphere on a plane - it is necessary to know the dimensions of this sphere, that is, the Earth. Even in antiquity, the Greek mathematician, astronomer, geographer, philologist and poet Eratosthenes managed to measure the circumference of the globe, but did it with a big error. However, a study of the coordinates of objects on the Piri Reis map indicates that the dimensions of the Earth were taken into account without error, not to mention the fact that he represented it as a ball contrary to his contemporary theories.
In addition, studies have shown that the Piri Reis map is drawn using planar geometry, where latitudes and longitudes are at right angles. But it was copied from a map with spherical trigonometry! Ancient cartographers not only knew that the Earth was a sphere, but also calculated the length of the equator with an accuracy of about 100 kilometers.
ancient aeronauts
It remains to find out who and when compiled the very mysterious source that the Turkish admiral copied. Some scientists admit that the last time Antarctica was completely or partially free of ice was about 12,000 years ago. Official science believes that at that time there were no civilizations on Earth capable of making such accurate maps using spherical trigonometry, chronographs (necessary for exact definition longitude), aerial photography capable of calculating the length of the equator.
Although there was enough material evidence of the existence of civilizations much older than the Sumerian or Indian, so far scientists have been able to question them. But this time, the evidence for the existence of ancient technology is undeniable. Piri Reis could not have had such knowledge, and this proves the presence of some ancient map that he copied.
By the way, the Piri Reis map also gives an answer to the question of where those who created it lived. It is composed in the so-called polar equal-area projection, which means it must have a center. In this case, these are the neighborhoods of Cairo, or, for example, ancient Memphis. It turns out that historians at least three times underestimate the age of the Egyptian civilization and the level of its development.
The Piri Reis map, and especially the unknown source used by the admiral, calls into question the hypothesis of the linear progress of mankind. Approximately 12,000 years ago, there was a civilization in the Nile Delta, whose representatives could not only reach Antarctica, but also did it by air, and their knowledge in the field of mathematics and geography was not much different from modern ones.
The Mystery of the Piri Reis Map
The image of America on the Piri Reis map is one of the few that have survived to this day. Historians found it in 1929 in a pile of cobblestones near the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Now the map is kept in the library of this palace and it is extremely rarely put on public display. Map of Piri Reis, dated 1513, drawn on the skin of a gazelle by an admiral of the Turkish fleet ottoman empire Piri Reis.
The map has a grid of intersecting lines - the so-called "loxodrome", which was used to plot the course, they were a characteristic feature of medieval nautical charts. A careful study of the map showed that it was originally a map of the world, which was then torn apart.
The sailing map, as it would be called now, was a typical document of the 14th-16th centuries. Such maps were created for sailors sailing from port to port. They were not suitable for long-distance ocean travel, as they did not take into account the sphericity of the Earth. Undoubtedly ancient image America is of considerable interest to historians, and not only.
In his 1966 book Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, University of New Hampshire historian and geographer Charles Hapgood suggests that the land area at the bottom of the map south of South America unquestionably marks Antarctica (and this long before discovery of the mainland!). The map shows the coastline of Antarctica in detail and provides what Hapgood says is an accurate depiction of Queen Maud Land without glaciers. He believes this indicates that it was mapped in prehistoric times, before the continent was frozen over.
But how could a Stone Age man see and map Antarctica? Hapgood had no doubt that there had once been a now forgotten prehistoric civilization whose inhabitants traveled across the oceanic expanses. They swam from pole to pole, so even in the distant past they were able to map the entire surface of the Earth. According to Hapgood's theory, these civilizations have left us maps that are more than a thousand years old. Their copies were used by navigators of such cultures as the Minoan and Phoenician. Hapgood attributed the Piri Reis map to this kind of ancient maps.
Later, Erich von Däniken argued that the ice-free Antarctica depicted on the Piri Reis map confirms his theory of ancient astronauts, and stated that its first version was created by representatives extraterrestrial civilization. In his 1995 book Footprints of the Gods, Graham Hancock also points out that in time immemorial there were now unknown, highly developed ancient civilizations. Their deep knowledge of astronomy, architecture, navigation and mathematics was passed down to the ancient cultures of the Olmecs, Aztecs, Mayans and Egyptians.
He also claimed that the creators of the Piri Reis map used copies of ancient superculture maps as sources. Both Hapgood and Hancock noted that the image of Antarctica presented on the Piri Reis map is extremely detailed: mountains, rivers and lakes are plotted on it. When it was created, ancient observations from a satellite over Egypt could be taken as a basis.
Many of the scientists and archaeologists are skeptical of Hapgood's theory. Mainly because no sources have survived to this day that would testify to the existence ancient civilization, which would have the resources, technology, and even more so the need to explore Antarctica. What could be their reasons? Even assuming that such a highly developed prehistoric culture existed, the question remains whether the Piri Reis map actually shows Antarctica without ice cover?
For the most part, supporters of the theory of an ancient maritime civilization complain about the lost geographical knowledge, the existence of which confirms the accuracy with which the map was made, especially in the part depicting Antarctica. But is the Piri Reis map really that accurate? The absence of the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica indicates that if the map actually depicts the South American continent, then it is connected to Antarctica by a landmass of almost 932 miles. And this is a glaring mistake for such an accurate map.
Studying the rest of the map, which depicts Europe and Africa, you can see quite detailed images for those times. But the sizes of the peninsulas and bays are increased, which, apparently, is connected with the navigation of that time, which was carried out according to coastal landmarks. South America seems too narrow, although Brazil is shown quite accurately. In the same time, North America depicted indistinctly and rather casually, as if drawn from words, and not on the basis of geographical knowledge.
These data make it possible to assert that in ancient times they did not carry out large-scale research, based on which it would be possible to create accurate map. It should be noted that there are ancient maps made more carefully than the Piri Reis map. So, on the map of 1500 by Juan de la Cosa and Alberto Canti, the position of the islands of Cuba, Jamaica and Puerto Rico is shown more accurately. The only detail that can serve as confirmation of the authenticity of the Piri Reis map is that it supposedly depicts Greenland before the glaciation.
But even with a cursory examination in the upper right corner of the map is distinguishable West Side France located at 50° northern latitude. Therefore, if France is shown on the map as the northernmost country, Greenland should not be on it, and since there are no islands that even remotely resemble Greenland, it is very difficult to say whether these data are evidence of this version.
To confirm the theory that the Piri Reis map depicts Antarctica without ice, Charles Hapgood used acoustic research data that were obtained during the Antarctic expeditions of the 40-50s of the XX century. However, Hapgood's hypothesis, which once seemed quite probable to scientists, today raises serious doubts. An insurmountable controversy has emerged regarding the unfrozen Antarctica depicted on the Piri Reis map.
After the mainland finally thawed, its coastline had to change. It could not match the modern outlines of Antarctica. Over time Earth's crust the continent was to sink hundreds of meters under the weight of millions of tons of ice lying above it, and the coastline below it would change completely. If we compare Antarctica on the Piri Reis map with the relatively recent topographic map subglacial surface of the continent, it becomes clear that there is nothing in common between their coastlines. In addition, modern geographical studies indicate that Antarctica was freed from ice not in 4000 BC. e., as Hapgood stated. Recently received data on the period of existence of unfrozen Antarctica showed that it was more than 14 million years ago.
But perhaps in more convincing evidence refuting the prehistoric origin of the map is contained in the notes of Piri Reis himself. At the beginning of the 16th century, when he drew his map, the Portuguese were already traveling through Atlantic Ocean. They mentioned parts of South America they had discovered. The text of one of the inscriptions on the map speaks of an attack by the indigenous population of a Portuguese ship that landed on the coast of the southern mainland. Another inscription speaks of the incredible heat. These data are quite suitable for describing South America. But the hot weather and naked inhabitants in Antarctica are simply an invention.
It has not yet been possible to find out what sources were used to create the Piri Reis map, but it can be assumed that among them were the works of the Greek astronomer and geographer Ptolemy (2nd century AD), various Portuguese maps and maps of Christopher Columbus. It should be noted that Reis himself admitted that he copied the maps of Columbus. In addition, many features of the Piri Reis map, in particular geographical names and elements of the West Indies, suggest that he used at least one map of Columbus to create his own.
Reis Map and modern map, comparison
Other evidence that Reis used maps medieval Europe, is a ship depicted in the upper part and a fish carrying two people on its back. Below the illustration was a quote from a medieval legend about the life of the Irish Saint Brandon. Apparently, Piri Reis transferred it from one of the source maps. This fact suggests that at least one map of medieval Europe was used.
Greg McIntosh in 2000 in the book Piri Reis Map 1513. noted that if you carefully look at the maps of those times, it becomes clear that there is nothing on the Piri Reis map that would not have been known in 1513. He also claims that the lands on the Piri Reis map thought to be Antarctica are in fact the hypothetical Great Southern Continent that cartographers have been mapping since the time of Ptolemy.
It was generally accepted that a continent must exist in the southern hemisphere to maintain the mass balance of the Earth in opposition to the northern hemisphere. McIntosh also notes that on the Piri Reis map, all coasts south of 25° are inaccurate and misplaced, and Antarctica in the north goes as far as 40° south latitude, although in fact it never went beyond 70°. A careful study of the Piri Reis map shows that it most likely does not depict Antarctica. Because the bears of the southern continent are already very similar to the American ones, perhaps the map shows a part of South America, fitted in size to the shape of parchment.
Another feature of South America on the Piri Reis map is the image of the Andes ranges and the rivers - Amazon, Orinoco and La Plata, originating on the slopes of the mountains and flowing east to the sea. At that time, Europeans did not know about the Andes, how could they be on the map? However, the Reis map is not the only one showing mountain ranges deep in the South American continent. The map of Nicolò de Canerio (1502-1504), kept in the National Library of Paris, also contains an image of the eastern coast of South America with the tops of mountain ranges. This data indicates that the Canerio map was most likely another source for Piri Reis.
One more question remains unclear. If the Piri Reis map is based on the information of ancient navigators, the Andes could be depicted here, but the Pacific Ocean is unlikely. A more plausible explanation is that the mountains depicted in the center of South America on the Piri Reis map are actually located on the east coast of the continent, but drawn in the wrong place and at the wrong scale.
Most scholars today believe that the Piri Reis map is more accurate than one would expect from medieval 16th-century navigational charts, which were based on geographical knowledge and assumptions of that era. There is no reason to believe that Piri Reis relied on the work of some hypothetical supercultures when creating his map. Of course, he could use ancient sources that have not survived to this day, but the map itself is of great value as amazingly beautiful and important source middle ages.
