Maps of Piri Reis - Kartazon Dream. Ancient maps turned out to be copies

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1. From a personal matter.
Piri Reis (Haji Muhiddin Piri ibn Haji Mehmed) was a well-known historical figure, he was born between 1465 and 1470 in Gallipoli (Gelibolu), in northwestern Turkey. Nephew of the legendary commander of the Turkish fleet Kemal Reis Egriboz, admiral of the navy Ottoman Empire, participant in many battles of the 16th century. He was a major specialist in maritime affairs, the author of the navigation manual "Kutab-i-Bariye" (Map of the Seas), which contained detailed description coasts, shoals, bays, mooring places, bays and straits of the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. Despite holding the admiral's post, Piri Reis fell out of favor and was beheaded in Cairo in 1555. What a head that has flown off your shoulders!
For the admiral was not only a skilled naval commander, famous pirate, but also a passionate cartographer who took to the grave a still unsolved mystery.

2. Maps from the "Book of the Seas".

Not only islands were present on the maps, underwater reefs and shallows, bays and channels, shelters during storms, wind gusts and directions, orientation information based on the stars, map and compass, information about the world's seas, lands and continents, but also city monuments and architectural structures.

3. The Admiral's Mysterious Card.
In 1929, from the main Sultan's palace Topkapi to historical center They planned to create a museum in Istanbul, and there Dr. Ethem discovered ancient maps. The dates on the two cards correspond to 1513 and 1528.

The name of the Sultan's palace, Topkapi, means "cannon gate" in Turkish.

The 1513 map was made from six pieces of gazelle skin, each measuring about 90 x 65 cm and was only a fragment of a larger map, apparently of the entire world. The first thing that caught my eye upon studying it in detail was the accuracy of the position of the African and American continents relative to each other and the correct distance between them, despite the fact that only 21 years had passed since the discovery of the American continent and Columbus’s voyages.
The second map of Piri Reis was drawn up in 1528, its surviving fragment depicts the Atlantic from Greenland in the north to Cuba in the south, with descriptions of the northeastern part of Florida and Canada, Greenland and the coast of Central America. Unlike the first map, it has corrected data on the Bahamas, Antilles, the islands of Haiti and Cuba, as well as a description of the Yucatan and Honduras peninsulas discovered in 1517 and 1519.
The remaining fragments of the "Map of the World" have not survived.

4. Playing cards.

The notes in the fields of the map indicate that the source was 20 maps, some of which were obtained by Piri Reis from Spanish ships captured in the waters of the Red Sea, four were Portuguese, one Arab, as well as the map used by Christopher Columbus when sailing to America, the original of which has been lost.

This map is a compilation of many other maps: European, Arab, Chinese and Indian, as mentioned by Piri Reis himself, which were combined with images of maps that were more ancient, how ancient is unknown. This is probably why part of the map is very accurate, and part contains unforgivable errors. For example, the coast of South America looks like it was copied twice (a section of the South American coast up to 1500-2000 km long), while the image is greatly deformed with a shift to the right, and the Drake Passage is completely absent.
The unusual nature of the image - the lines drawn across the Atlantic were possible navigational routes and not typical for cartography of the time - were probably copied from older maps that served as the primary source.

5. Accuracy.
To make a map with what degree of accuracy you need to have a chronometer.
The point is this: if you carefully examine any map made before the mid-18th century and compare it with a modern one, you can see its characteristic feature: any object located on it has exact coordinates in latitude, but not in longitude. Because the latitude of a place was determined with an accuracy of a degree of arc and higher from the stars, even with a primitive goniometric instrument, and to measure longitude, precise knowledge of time is necessary, that is, the presence of a chronometer, hence the spread in longitude of hundreds of kilometers. But on the Piri Reis map, after the transformations, the accuracy of longitudes turned out to be at the same level as latitudes. After discovering the method of cartographic projection used on the map and not similar to any known one, a grid was made and the admiral’s map was combined with modern cartography data - it turned out to be absolutely accurate. To achieve such accuracy, it is necessary to know the diameter of the Earth within 100 kilometers and have knowledge of spherical trigonometry, which was developed only in the 18th century. However, there is another way to achieve the same quality of cartography - aerial photography.
It's like finding a transistor radio in the tomb of Ivan the Terrible.

6. This cannot be.
These are not all mysteries - the map contains something that at that time none of the European, and especially Turkish, cartographers could have known about. On the South American continent, the Andes are depicted, discovered only a few decades later, the islands off the coast of South America - the Falklands, were generally discovered and mapped only in the second half of the 16th century. Another oddity is that some of the islands in the Gulf of Mexico coincide with underwater elevations - the islands have long disappeared.

Comparison between the modern depiction of South America and the Piri Reis map version of the depiction.

6. Antarctica.
But this is not the most interesting thing about the map.
Just think, the accuracy of the projection, latitude - longitude, distances between Africa - America, mountains are drawn.
A map from 1513 shows part of the coast of Antarctica.

And the most interesting thing is how it is depicted. On all modern maps we have the edge of coastal ice covering the southern continent, discovered in 1820, and on the map of the Turkish admiral we have very precise outlines of the coastline, the design of which became known to mankind only in 1959.

7. Mail, sir!

Topic: Admiral Piri Reis Map
To: Professor Charles H. Hapgood
Keene Community College, Keene, New Hampshire

Dear Professor Hapgood,
Your request to evaluate some unusual features on the 1513 Piri Reis map has been reviewed. The claim that the bottom of the map shows the coast of Princess Martha, Queen 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, geographic elements show very marked similarities to seismic scanning data from the 1959 Swedish-British Antarctic Expedition of the real world. geological relief under the glacier there. This indicates that the coast was mapped before it was covered with ice. The glacier in this region today is about a mile thick.
We have no idea how the data on this map might correlate with the supposed level of geographic knowledge in 1513.

Harold Z. Ohlmeyer, Lieutenant Colonel, Commander, US Air Force

8. After what has been said.
Modern science believes that the Antarctic ice sheet was formed several million years ago, while the age of human civilization does not exceed several thousand years.

9. Banknote.

The Piri Reis card has a material value of 10 liras - it is depicted on a modern Turkish banknote.

Sources: http://sea-wave.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=475
Illustrations:

In 1929, a map dated 1513 was discovered in one of the ancient palaces of Constantinople. There was a picture of both Americas on the map! (one of the earliest in history) and the signature of a Turkish admiral Piri Reisa. Also, on the map, with high accuracy, the coastline of Antarctica was displayed - 300 years before its discovery!

Tourists crossing the Dardanelles in the Canakkale area are usually so engrossed in stories about the armies of Xerxes and Alexander the Great who crossed the Dardanelles many centuries ago that they completely ignore the modest bust erected on the European side of the strait next to the crossing. Few people know that the modest signature “Piri Reis” under the bust connects this place with one of the most intriguing mysteries of history.

A surviving fragment of the Piri Reis map. 1513

In 1929, a map dated 1513 was discovered in one of the ancient palaces of Constantinople. The map might not have aroused much interest if it were not for the image of the Americas (one of the earliest in history) and the signature of the Turkish admiral Piri Reis. Then, in the 20s, on the wave of national upsurge, it was especially important for the Turks to emphasize the role of the Turkish cartographer in creating one of the earliest maps of America. They began to study the map closely, as well as the history of its creation. And this is what became known.

In 1513, the admiral of the Turkish fleet, Piri Reis, completed work on big map of the world for its geographical atlas “Bahriye”. He himself did not travel that much, but when compiling the map, he used about 20 cartographic sources. Of these, eight maps dated back to the time of Ptolemy, some belonged to Alexander the Great, and one, as Piri Reis writes in his book “The Seven Seas,” was “recently compiled by an infidel named Colombo.” And then the admiral says: “An infidel named Colombo, a Genoese, discovered these lands. One book fell into the hands of the said Colombo, in which he read that on the edge of the Western Sea, far in the West, there are shores and islands. All kinds of metals and gems. The above-mentioned Colombo studied this book for a long time... Colombo also learned about the natives’ passion for glass jewelry from this book and took them with him to exchange them for gold.”

Let us leave Columbus and his mysterious book aside for now, although the direct indication that he knew where he was sailing is already amazing. Unfortunately, neither this book nor Columbus’s map has reached us. But several sheets of maps from the Bahriye atlas were miraculously preserved and were published in Europe in 1811. But then they were not given much importance. It was not until 1956, when a Turkish naval officer presented the maps as a gift to the American Naval Hydrographic Office, that American military cartographers conducted research to confirm or disprove the seemingly impossible: the map depicted the coastline of Antarctica - 300 years before its discovery!

So the Piri Reis map began to reveal its secrets. Here are just a few of them.

Turkish Naval Museum. In the Memorial Hall there are plaques with the names of those killed at sea (the most ancient date- 1319). Here you can also see a rare collection of ancient navigation maps, and copies of them can be bought in the souvenir shop. The most famous of them is the plan of Admiral Piri Reis (1517)

The map shows the exact coastline of Antarctica

Antarctica as a continent was discovered in 1818, but many cartographers, including Gerardus Mercator, even before that time believed in the existence of a continent in the far south and plotted its supposed outlines on their maps. The Piri Reis map, as already mentioned, accurately depicts the coastline of Antarctica - 300 years before its discovery!

But this is not the biggest mystery, especially since several ancient maps are known, including Mercator’s map, which, as it turns out, depict, very accurately, Antarctica. Previously, they simply did not pay attention to this, because “ appearance» continents on the map may be greatly distorted depending on the map projections: it is not so easy to project a surface onto a plane globe. The fact that many ancient maps accurately reproduce not only Antarctica, but also other continents became known after calculations made in the middle of the last century, taking into account various projections used by old cartographers.

But the fact that the Piri Reis map shows the coast of Antarctica, not yet covered with ice, is difficult to comprehend! After all, the modern appearance of the coastline of the southern continent is determined by a thick ice cover that extends far beyond the real land. It turns out that Piri Reis used sources compiled by people who saw Antarctica before the glaciation? But this cannot be, since these people would have lived millions of years ago!

The only explanation for this fact accepted by modern scientists is the theory of the periodic change of the Earth's poles, according to which the last such change could have occurred approximately 6,000 years ago, and it was then that Antarctica began to be covered with ice again. That is, we are talking about navigators who lived 6,000 years ago and drew up maps that (like the Piri Reis map) were used to refine modern ones? Incredible...

On July 6, 1960, the US Air Force responded to Professor Charles Hapgood of Keene College in response to his request for an assessment of the ancient Piri Reis map:

Topic: Admiral Piri Reis Map

To: Professor Charles Hapgood

Kiin College

Keene, New Hampshire

Dear Professor Hapgood,

Your request to evaluate the unusual features of the Piri Reis map from 1513 has been reviewed by this organization. The assertion that the lower part of the map shows Princess Martha Coast [parts of] Dronning Maud Land in Antarctica, as well as the Palmer Peninsula, has some basis. We found this explanation to be the most logical and possibly correct. The geographic details at the bottom of the map are consistent with the seismological profile of the top of the ice cap taken by the 1949 Swedish-British expedition. This means that the coastline was mapped before it was covered with ice. The ice in this area is approximately 1.5 kilometers thick. We have no idea how these data could have been obtained given the assumed level of geographical knowledge in 1513.

Harold Ohlmeyer, Lieutenant Colonel, Captain, US Air Force.

Official science has been saying all this time that the ice cap of Antarctica is a million years old. The map shows the northern part of this continent without ice cover. Then the map must be at least a million years old, which is impossible, because... humanity did not yet exist then.

Further, more careful research revealed the date of the end of the last ice-free period: 6,000 years ago. There is disagreement about the start date of this period: from 13,000 to 9,000 years ago. The main question: Who mapped Queen Maud Land 6,000 years ago? What the unknown civilization had similar technology?

According to traditional ideas, the first civilization was formed 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia, and was soon followed by Indian and Chinese. Accordingly, none of these civilizations could do this. But who lived 6,000 years ago and had technologies only available today?

In the Middle Ages, special sea maps (“portolani”) appeared, on which all sea routes, shores, bays, straits, etc. were carefully marked. Most of them described the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, as well as some others. One of these maps was drawn by Piri Reis. But on some of them unknown lands were visible, which the sailors kept in the strictest confidence. It is believed that Columbus was among these chosen sailors.

To draw the map, Reis used several sources collected during his travels. He wrote notes on the map, from which we can understand what kind of work he did. He writes that he is not responsible for intelligence and cartography data, but only for combining all sources. He claims that one of the source maps was drawn by sailors contemporary to Reis, while the others were drawn in the 4th century BC. or even earlier.

Dr. Charles Hapgood, in the preface to his book Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings (Turnstone books, London, 1979), writes:

It seems that information was transferred between people very carefully. The origin of the cards is unknown; perhaps they were made by the Minoans or Phoenicians, who for thousands of years were the best sailors of antiquity. We have evidence that they collected and studied the great Library of Alexandria in Egypt, and their knowledge was useful to the geographers of that time.

Perhaps Piri Reis received some maps from the Library of Alexandria, a famous and important source of knowledge from ancient times. In accordance with Hapgood's reconstruction, copies of these documents and some other sources were moved to other cultural centers, including. and to Constantinople. Then, in 1204 (year 4 crusade), when the Venetians entered the city, these maps began to circulate among European sailors.

Hapgood continues:

Most of these charts were for the Mediterranean and Black Seas. But maps of other regions have also been preserved: both Americas, the Arctic and Antarctic. It became clear that the ancients could swim from pole to pole. It may seem incredible, but evidence confirms that some ancient explorers explored Antarctica when it was not yet covered by ice, and that they had an accurate navigational tool for determining longitude, more advanced than what ancient, medieval and modern explorers had until the second half of the 18th century. […]

This evidence of ancient technology will support and complement many other hypotheses about lost civilizations. Scientists have so far been able to refute most of these hypotheses, calling them myths, but this evidence cannot be refuted. It also requires a reconsideration of all previous statements with a broader view.”

The map is linked to Cairo

Interestingly, the Piri Reis map also gives the answer to the question of where these ancient sailors lived. (Or not navigators, if they used other means of transportation?) The fact is that a professional cartographer, by studying an ancient map and comparing it with modern ones, can determine what type of projection the map creator used. And when the Piri Reis map was compared with the modern one, compiled in a polar equal-area projection, they discovered almost complete similarities. In particular, the map of the 16th century Turkish admiral literally repeats the map compiled by the US Air Force during the Great Patriotic War.

But a map drawn in polar equal area projection must have a center. In the case of the American map, it was Cairo, where an American military base was located during the war. And from this, as shown by the Chicago scientist Charles Hapgood, who thoroughly studied the Piri Reis map, it directly follows that the center of the ancient map, which became the prototype of the admiral’s map, was located there, in Cairo, or its environs. That is, the ancient cartographers were Egyptians who lived in Memphis, or their more ancient ancestors, who made this place their starting point.

Mathematical apparatus of cartographers

But whoever they were, they were skilled at their craft. As soon as researchers began to study the fragments of the Turkish admiral’s map that have come down to us, they were faced with the question of the authorship of its original source. The Piri Reis map is a so-called portolan, a nautical chart that allows you to build “lines between ports,” that is, navigate between port cities.

In the 15th-16th centuries, such maps were much more advanced than land maps, but, as one of the leading scientists in this field, A.E. Nordenskiöld, noted, they did not develop. That is, the maps of the 15th century were of the same quality as the maps of the 14th century. This, from his point of view, indicates that the skill of cartographers was not acquired, but borrowed, that is, simply put, they simply redrew older maps, which in itself is natural.

But what I can’t get my head around is the accuracy of the constructions and the mathematical apparatus, without which these constructions are simply impossible to carry out. I will give just a few facts.

It is known that to build geographical map, that is, the mapping of a sphere on a plane, it is necessary to know the dimensions of this sphere, that is, the Earth. Eratosthenes was able to measure the circumference of the globe back in ancient times, but did so with a large error. Until the 15th century, no one clarified these data. However, a thorough study of the coordinates of objects on the Peary map indicates that the dimensions of the Earth were taken into account without error, that is, the compilers of the map had more accurate information about our planet at their disposal (not to mention the fact that they represented it as a ball).

Researchers of the Turkish map also convincingly showed that the compilers of the mysterious ancient source knew trigonometry (the Reis map was 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 there is a ball, but they also calculated the length of the equator with an accuracy of about 100 km!) and cartographic projections that were not known either to Eratosthenes or even to Ptolemy, but they theoretically could have used ancient maps stored in the Library of Alexandria. That is, the original source of the map is definitely more ancient.

In 1953, a Turkish naval officer sent the Piri Reis chart to the US Navy Hydrographic Office for inspection by Chief Engineer M. Walters, who called in Arlington Mallary, a respected scholar of ancient maps with whom he had previously worked. After much study, Mallary found a type of map projection. To check the accuracy of the map, he put a grid on the map and then transferred it to the globe: the map was absolutely accurate. Mallary argues that such accuracy requires aerial photography. But who had airplanes 6,000 years ago?

The hydrographic bureau couldn’t believe their eyes: the map turned out to be more accurate than modern data, so they even had to be corrected! The accuracy of determining the longitudinal coordinates indicated that spheroid trigonometry was used here, which was officially unknown until the mid-18th century.

Hapgood proved that the Reis map was drawn using planar geometry, with latitudes and longitudes at right angles. But it was copied from a map with spherical trigonometry! Ancient cartographers not only knew that the Earth is a sphere, but also calculated the length of the equator with an accuracy of about 100 km!

Hapgood sent his collection of ancient maps (and Race's map was not the only one) to Richard Strachan of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hapgood wanted to know exactly the level of mathematical knowledge needed to construct such maps. In 1965, Strachan responded that the level should be very high: using spheroid geometry, data on the curvature of the Earth and projection methods.

Look at the Piri Reis map with designed parallels and meridians:

The accuracy of the mapping of Dronning Maud Land, coastline, plateaus, deserts, bays was confirmed by the Swedish-British Antarctic Expedition of 1949 (as Ohlmeyer said in a letter to Hapgood). The researchers used sonar and seismic sounding to determine the terrain beneath the ice, which is about 1.5 km thick.

In 1953, Hapgood wrote the book The Shifting Crust of the Earth: A Key to Some Basic Problems in Earth Science, where he proposed a theory to explain how Antarctica could have been ice-free before 4000 BC. (see Bibliography). The essence of the theory is as follows:

Antarctica was ice-free (and therefore significantly warmer) due to the fact that it was once not near the south pole, but some 3,000 km further north, which Hapgood argued “would have placed it outside the Arctic Circle.” , and in warmer climates."

The shift of the continent further south to its current position could be caused by the so-called displacement of the earth's crust(not to be confused with continental drift and plate tectonics). This mechanism explains how "the entire lithosphere of a planet can sometimes shift over the surface of the softer inner layers, just as the entire peel of an orange moves over the surface of the pulp when it loses firm contact with it." (Quoted from Hapgood's Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings).
NOTE: this is an alternative to the so-called. "Nod" - movement (change) of the Poles

This theory was sent to Albert Einstein, who responded very positively to it. Although geologists did not accept the idea, Einstein was much more open to Hapgood's statements like this: “In the polar regions there is a monolithic deposit of ice, asymmetrically located with respect to the pole. The rotation of the Earth affects these masses, forming a centrifugal moment that is transmitted to the rigid earth's crust. The moment constantly increasing in this way will move the crust over the entire surface of the Earth when it reaches a certain force.” (Einstein’s Preface to the book “The Earth’s Shifting Crust...”, part one.)

In any case, even if Hapgood's theory is correct, the mystery still remains. The Piri Reis map should not exist. It can't be that long ago someone was able to draw something like this accurate map. The first tool for calculating longitude with the necessary accuracy was invented in 1761 by John Harrison. Before this, there was no way to calculate longitude so accurately: the errors were hundreds of kilometers. And Reis's map is one of several that demonstrate supposedly unknown lands, impossible knowledge and a magnificent accuracy that surprises even today.

Reis indicated that he was based on ancient maps, which, in turn, were also copied from even older and even more accurate records. For example, Dulcert's Portolano map, drawn by him in 1339, shows the exact longitudes of Europe and the North. Africa, and the coordinates of the Mediterranean and Black Seas are plotted with an accuracy of half a degree. An even more amazing drawing is the Zeno map from 1380. It covers an area as far as Greenland, and its accuracy is amazing. Hapgood writes: "It is impossible that anyone in the 14th century knew the exact coordinates of these places." Another striking map belongs to the Turk Hadji Ahmed (1559), which shows a strip of c. 1600 km long, connecting Alaska and Siberia. This isthmus is now covered with water due to ice age, which raised the water level in the ocean.

Oronteus Fineus is another person who drew a map with incredible accuracy in 1532. His Antarctica was also devoid of ice. There are maps of Greenland as two separate islands, which was confirmed by a French expedition that discovered that the ice cap covered two separate islands.

As we see, many ancient maps covered almost the entire surface of the Earth. They seem to be parts of an older map of the world, made by unknown people using technologies only rediscovered today. While early humans supposedly lived in a primitive way, someone “put down on paper” the entire geography of the Earth. And this general knowledge somehow fell into pieces, now collected by several people who lost this knowledge and simply copied what they found in libraries, bazaars and other various places.

Hapgood took it one step further by opening a cartographic document that copied an older Chinese map, dated 1137, engraved on a stone pillar. She demonstrated the same high level technology, the same method of applying a mesh and the same techniques of spheroid geometry. It has so many similarities with Western maps that it can be assumed that they had a common source. Could this be a lost civilization that existed thousands of years before?

The map shows both Americas

The Piri Reis map is one of the first to show the Americas. It was compiled 21 years after Columbus’s voyage and the “official” discovery of America. And it shows not only the exact coastline, but also rivers and even the Andes. And this despite the fact that Columbus himself did not map America, sailing only to the Caribbean islands!

The mouths of some rivers, in particular the Orinoco, are shown with an “error” on the Piri Reis map: river deltas are not indicated. However, this does not indicate an error, but rather an expansion of deltas that occurred over time, as happened with the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia in the last 3,500 years.

Columbus knew where he was going

Piri Reis claimed that Columbus knew well where he was sailing, thanks to the book that fell into his hands. The fact that Columbus’s wife was the daughter of the Grand Master of the Templar Order, which had already changed its name by that time, and which had significant archives of ancient books and maps, indicates a possible way to acquire the mysterious book (today, much has been written about the Templar fleet and the high probability of their regular voyages to America).

There are many facts that indirectly confirm that Columbus owned one of the maps that served as the source for the Piri Reis map. For example, Columbus did not stop his ships at night, as was customary for fear of hitting reefs in unknown waters, but sailed under full sail, as if knowing for sure that there would be no obstacles. When a riot began on the ships due to the fact that the promised land still did not appear, 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 with him a supply of glass jewelry, hoping to exchange it for gold with the Indians, as recommended in his book. Finally, each ship carried a sealed package 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.

The Piri Reis map is not the only one

And the map of the Turkish admiral, the source for which was also the maps of Columbus, is not the only one of its kind. If you set out, as Charles Hapgood did, to compare images of Antarctica on several maps compiled before its “official” discovery, then there will be no doubt about the existence of a common source. Hapgood meticulously compared the maps of Peary, Arantheus Finaus, Hadji Ahmed and Mercator, created at different times and independently of each other, and determined that they all used the same unknown source, which made it possible to depict the polar continent with the greatest reliability long before its discovery.

Most likely, we will no longer know for sure who created this primary source and when. But its existence, convincingly proven by researchers of the Turkish admiral’s map, indicates the existence of a certain ancient civilization with level scientific knowledge, comparable to modern ones, at least in the field of geography (Piry’s map, as already mentioned, made it possible to clarify some modern maps). And this casts doubt on the hypothesis of the gradual linear progress of humanity in general and science in particular. One gets the feeling that the greatest knowledge about nature, as if obeying an unknown law, at a certain stage becomes available to humanity, only to then be lost and... reborn again when the time comes. And who knows how many discoveries the next discovery will contain?

The Piri Reis map often serves as evidence that there once was an advanced civilization that we are now just beginning to learn about. The earliest known civilization, the Sumerians from Mesopotamia, appeared seemingly out of nowhere 6,000 years ago and had no experience sea voyage and navigation. However, they spoke respectfully of their "Nephilim" ancestors, whom they considered gods.

The main mysteries of the map:

The Earth's equator is measured with an accuracy of about 100 km, without which the construction of a map would be impossible.

The Antarctic coastline matches what it was like at least 6,000 years ago, before it was covered by the ice of the last Ice Age.

The map is one of the first to show the Americas. Early research confirms that the map already had the exact coordinates of the Americas just 21 years after the voyages of Columbus, who sailed not to the continents themselves, but only to the Caribbean islands. The inscriptions on Reis's map indicate that he used older maps, incl. and those that Columbus himself painted. Reis believes that ancient maps were available to Columbus and became the impetus for his expeditions.

The source map's projection center was located in what is now the Egyptian city of Alexandria, an ancient cultural center that housed the greatest library of antiquity (before it was destroyed by Christian conquerors).

Reis writes in his comments that some of his sources date back to the time of Alexander the Great (332 BC).

Land of the Queen Mod. The Mystery of the Piri Reis Map

Antarctica is inhabited. What scientists discovered in Antarctica. The legendary map of Piri Reis

The mystery of the Piri Reis map

The image of America on the Piri Reis map is one of the few that has survived to this day. Historians found it in 1929 in a pile of cobblestones near Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Now the map is kept in the library of this palace and is extremely rarely put on public display. Piri Reis map, dating back to 1513, was drawn on the skin of a gazelle by the admiral of the Turkish fleet of the Ottoman Empire, Piri Reis.

The map is marked with a grid of intersecting lines - the so-called “loxodrome”, which were used to plot the course, they were characteristic feature medieval nautical charts. Careful examination of the map revealed that it was originally a world map, which was then torn into pieces.

The navigation 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 ocean travel, since they did not take into account the sphericity of the Earth. Undoubtedly ancient image America is of significant interest to historians, and not only.

In his 1966 book Maps of the Kings of the Ancient Seas, University of New Hampshire historian and geographer Charles Hapgood suggests that the area of land at the bottom of the map south of South America undoubtedly represents Antarctica (and this long before discovery of the continent!). The map depicts the coastline of Antarctica in detail and presents, according to Hapgood, an accurate depiction of Dronning Maud Land without glaciers. He believes this indicates that it was mapped in prehistoric times, before the continent was covered in ice.

But how was Stone Age man able to see and map Antarctica? Hapgood had no doubt that there once existed now-forgotten prehistoric civilizations, whose inhabitants traveled across the oceanic expanses. They sailed from pole to pole, which is why in the distant past they were able to map the entire surface of the Earth. According to Hapgood's theory, these civilizations left us a legacy of maps that are more than a thousand years old. Their copies were used by sailors from such cultures as the Minoan and Phoenician. Hapgood also considered the Piri Reis map to be a similar type of ancient map.

Later, Erich von Däniken argued that the ice-free Antarctica depicted on the Piri Reis map confirms his theory about ancient astronauts, and stated that its first version was created by representatives of an extraterrestrial civilization. In his 1995 book Footprints of the Gods, Graham Hancock also points out that there were now unknown, highly advanced ancient civilizations in ancient times. Their deep knowledge of astronomy, architecture, navigation and mathematics was passed on to the ancient cultures of the Olmec, Aztec, Mayan and Egyptian.

He also claimed that the creators of the Piri Reis map used copies of maps of ancient supercultures as sources. Both Hapgood and Hancock noted that the image of Antarctica presented on the Piri Reis map is extremely detailed: it shows mountains, rivers and lakes. When creating it, ancient observations from a satellite located over Egypt could be taken as a basis.

Many scientists and archaeologists are skeptical of Hapgood's theory. Mainly because no sources have survived to this day that would indicate the existence of an ancient civilization that would have had the resources, technology, and especially the need to explore Antarctica. What reasons could they have? Even if we assume that such a highly developed prehistoric culture existed, the question remains, does the Piri Reis map actually show Antarctica without ice cover?

For the most part, supporters of the theory of an ancient maritime civilization complain about lost geographical knowledge, the existence of which is confirmed by the accuracy with which the map was made, especially in the part depicting Antarctica. But is the Piri Reis map really that accurate? No Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica indicates that if the map actually shows the South American continent, then it is connected to Antarctica by a landmass of almost 932 miles. And this is a glaring error for such an accurate map.

Studying the rest of the map, which shows Europe and Africa, you can see quite detailed images for those times. But the sizes of the peninsulas and bays are increased, which is apparently due to the navigation of that time, which was carried out using coastal landmarks. South America seems too narrow, although Brazil is shown quite accurately. At the same time, North America is depicted vaguely and rather carelessly, as if drawn from words rather than based on geographical knowledge.

These data make it possible to assert that in ancient times large-scale research was not carried out, based on which it would be possible to create an accurate map. It should be noted that there are ancient maps made more carefully than the Piri Reis map. Thus, the map of 1500 by Juan de la Cos and Alberto Canti shows more precisely the position of the islands of Cuba, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. The only detail that can serve to confirm 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 one can distinguish western part France, located at 50° north latitude. Therefore, if France is represented on the map as the most northern country, Greenland should not be there, and since there are no islands here that would even remotely resemble Greenland, it is very difficult to say whether this data is evidence of this version.

To confirm the theory that the Piri Reis map shows Antarctica without ice, Charles Hapgood used acoustic data obtained during Antarctic expeditions in the 40s and 50s of the 20th century. However, Hapgood’s hypothesis, which once seemed quite probable to scientists, today raises serious doubts. An insurmountable contradiction has emerged regarding the unfrozen Antarctica depicted on the Piri Reis map.

After the continent finally thawed, its coastline had to change. It could not correspond to the modern contours of Antarctica. Over time earth's crust The continent would have sunk hundreds of meters under the weight of the millions of tons of ice lying above it, and the coastline underneath would have been completely changed. If you compare Antarctica on the Piri Reis map with a relatively recent topographic map of the continent's subglacial surface, it becomes clear that their coastlines have nothing in common. In addition, modern geographical studies indicate that Antarctica did not become free of ice in 4000 BC. e., as stated by Hapgood. Recently obtained data on the period of existence of unfrozen Antarctica showed that it was more than 14 million years ago.

But, perhaps, the most 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 across the 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 on a Portuguese ship that landed on the shore of the southern continent. Another inscription speaks of incredible heat. These data are quite suitable for describing South America. But the hot weather and naked inhabitants in Antarctica are simply a fiction.

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 Columbus's maps. 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 of Columbus's maps to create his own.

Reis Card and modern map, comparison

Other evidence that Reis used cards medieval Europe, is a ship and a fish depicted at the top, carrying two people on its back. Beneath the illustration was a quote from a medieval tale about the life of the Irish saint Brandon. Apparently, Piri Reis transferred it from one of the source cards. 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 will become clear that there is nothing on the Piri Reis map that was not known in 1513. He also claims that the land on the Piri Reis map that is believed to be Antarctica is actually the hypothetical Great Southern Continent that cartographers have been mapping since the time of Ptolemy.

It was generally believed that there must be a continent in the southern hemisphere to maintain the balance of the Earth's mass as opposed to the northern hemisphere. McIntosh also notes that on the Piri Reis map, all coasts located south of 25° are inaccurate and out of place, and Antarctica in the north reaches 40° south latitude, although in fact it never went beyond 70°. A careful examination of the Piri Reis map shows that it most likely does not depict Antarctica. Because the bears of the southern continent are very similar to the American ones, perhaps the map shows a part of South America, adjusted in size to the shape of parchment.

Another feature of South America on the Piri Reis map is the image of the Andes ridges and rivers - the 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, so how could they end up on the map? However, Reis's map is not the only one showing mountain ranges in the depths of the South American continent. The map of Nicolo 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. These data indicate that, most likely, the Canerio map was another source for Piri Reis.

One more question remains unclear. If the Piri Reis map is based on information from ancient navigators, the Andes could be depicted here, but the Pacific Ocean is unlikely. A more plausible explanation is that the mountains shown in the center of South America on the Piri Reis map are actually located on the east coast of the continent, but are drawn in the wrong place and to the wrong scale.

Most scientists today believe that the Piri Reis map is more accurate than would be expected from medieval navigational charts of the 16th century, which were based on the geographical knowledge and assumptions of the 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 have used ancient sources that have not survived to this day, but the map itself is of great value as an amazingly beautiful and important source of the Middle Ages.

The map shows the exact coastline of Antarctica

But this is not the biggest mystery, especially since several ancient maps are known, including Mercator’s map, which, as it turns out, depict, very accurately, Antarctica. Previously, this was simply not paid attention to, because the “appearance” of a continent on a map can be greatly distorted depending on the map projections used: it is not so easy to project the surface of the globe onto a plane. The fact that many ancient maps accurately reproduce not only Antarctica, but also other continents became known after calculations made in the middle of the last century, taking into account various projections used by old cartographers.

On July 6, 1960, the US Air Force responded to Professor Charles Hapgood of Keene College in response to his request for an assessment of the ancient Piri Reis map:

Topic: Admiral Piri Reis Map

To: Professor Charles Hapgood

Keene College

Keene, New Hampshire

Dear Professor Hapgood,

Harold Ohlmeyer, Lieutenant Colonel, Captain, US Air Force.

Further, more careful research revealed the date of the end of the last ice-free period: 6,000 years ago. There is disagreement about the start date of this period: from 13,000 to 9,000 years ago. The big question is: who mapped Queen Maud Land 6,000 years ago? What unknown civilization had such technology?

Dr. Charles Hapgood, in the preface to his book Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings (Turnstone books, London, 1979), writes:

Perhaps Piri Reis received some maps from the Library of Alexandria, a famous and important source of knowledge from ancient times. In accordance with Hapgood's reconstruction, copies of these documents and some other sources were moved to other cultural centers, including. and to Constantinople. Then, in 1204 (the year of the 4th Crusade), when the Venetians entered the city, these maps began to circulate among European sailors.

Hapgood continues:

The map is linked to Cairo

On map of O. Finya Antarctica is depicted with ice-free shores, mountains and rivers. The relief of the central part of the map is not indicated, which could be due to the presence of a smallpolar cap, and for some other reasons.

According to materials geological research, glaciation of Antarctica with the formation of the polar cap began at the beginning of the Miocene epoch of the Neogene period (23 million years ago). During the early Miocene, most of this continent remained temperate climate and only by the middle of the Miocene (about 13 million years ago) did the glacial shell bind most of this continent. Consequently, the map of O. Finya most likely corresponds to the time 23 - 13 million years ago.

P. Reis Map

On P. Reis map Antarctica is shown connected to South America. The separation of these continents, according to most researchers,
occurred either at the turn of the Eocene and Oligocene (34 million years ago), or at the turn of the Paleogene and Neogene periods (23 million years ago). This means that the original of this map was compiled no later than this time.
So all three listed cards Antarctica is characterized by the time of its composition from 34, perhaps 42-45, to 23-13 million years ago, that is, it falls either at the very end of the “golden age”, or in the period immediately following it.

Map of Hyperborea by G. Mercator

Let's now consider map of Hyperborea by G. Mercator. It highlights the one located on the site of the Northern Arctic Ocean a continent with an inland sea that is divided into four parts by large rivers or straits. There are no traces of glaciation on this continent and the neighboring Greenland and islands of the Arctic Ocean. The first ice appeared in the Arctic approximately in the middle of the Miocene epoch of the Neogene period (16-10 million years ago). This means that the map of R. Mercator characterizes approximately the same time as the maps of F. Boische, O. Phineus and P. Reis.

Hyperborea - Northern Homeland of Humanity

Presence in the Paleogene and possibly early Neogene (Miocene) in the northern and south poles The lands of fairly large continents - Hyperborea and Antarctica, located in a zone of moderately warm, subtropical and tropical climates and covered with broad-leaved, subtropical and tropical vegetation, in combination with an ever-shining or briefly setting sun, confirms numerous legends that the cradle of humanity was in the northern, and possibly also in the southern, polar latitudes.Consequently, the most suitable places to search for the remains of our distant predecessors are not Africa or Asia, where the remains of Australopithecines, Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus and other ape-like “human ancestors” were found, but the bottom of the Arctic Ocean and the bedrock of Greenland, the northern polar islands and Antarctica! But today they are hidden from the eyes of researchers. Perhaps this is why we still do not know by sight our true ancestors, and are content with the fact that we descend from monkeys.

Readmy later works "When did forests grow and rivers flow in Antarctica? Once again about the age of the maps of Piri Reis, Orontius Phineus and Philippe Buache" and "The world map of Orontius Phineus 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 discuss this issue on the pages in the topic " "

© A.V. Koltypin, 2009

I, the author of this work A.V. Koltypin, I authorize you to use it for any non-prohibited current legislation purposes, provided that my authorship and a hyperlink to the site are indicated or http://earthbeforeflood.com

Reada series of my works"