Piri Reis map

The Piri Reis map

The Piri Reis map was discovered in 1929 while Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, Turkey was being converted into a museum. It consists of a map drawn on gazelle skin, primarily detailing the western coast of Africa and the eastern coast of South America. The map is considered to have been drawn in 1513 by Piri Reis, a famous admiral of the Turkish fleet.

Particularly noteworthy about the map is its depiction of a landmass attached to the southward region of South America that some claim resembles the coastline of Antarctica. This claim is most famously made by Charles Hapgood in his book Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, in which he builds on this claim to support an alternate history of global exploration.

Scholars, however, dispute this, citing the fact that for centuries cartographers had been depicting a southern landmass on global maps based on the theoretical assumption that one must exist. The landmass in question on the Piri Reis map would thus be simply a continuation of this tradition, with its debatable resemblance to the actual coastline being coincidental. Greg McIntosh especially discussed the Piri Reis map in depth. He showed that the Piri Reis map was developed from several of Columbus's maps. Hispaniola is confused with Japan since Columbus believed they were the same. Hispaniola is shown long axis north-south similar to maps then of Japan. Piri Reis shows double sets of Virgin Islands since he took them from two maps. Finally, many of the names of ports and geographic points are taken directly from Columbus's maps.

Lastly, the claim that the map depicts a portion of the ancient Antarctican landmass is unsubstantiated. Firstly, the map is large-scale and low-detail, and the landmass pictured is not nearly accurate enough to be matched to any actual landscape. Secondly, any similarity it may have to modern radar imaging of the Antarctica under the ice is irrelevant. At a period when Antartica was not covered with an ice cap its shorelines would be so drastically different as to be completely unrecognizable, due to the pre-icecap sea level being significantly higher, and thus obscuring a great portion of the sixth continent.

The Piri Reis map is currently located in the Library of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, but is not usually on display to the public.

External links

• Open Directory Project: Maps, Historical
• Gregory C. McIntosh, The tale of two admirals - Columbus and the Piri Reis Map of 1513, Mercator's World (Maj/June, 2000).
• McNeese State University: The oldest map of America drawn by Piri Reis; by Prof. Dr. Afetinan
• The Piri Re'is Map Includes high resolution images, commentary on the modern disputes about the significance of the map and translation of the map commentary.
• McNeese State University: The Piri Reis map of 1513 contains notes written on the map in Turkish Citat: "...IV. This map was drawn by Piri Ibn Haji Mehmed, known as the nephew of Kemal Reis, in Gallipoli, in the month of muharrem of the year 919 (that is, between the 9th of March and the 7th of April of the year 1513)...."
• Fra McNeese State University: "Piri Reis and the Columbian Theory" in "Aramco World Magazine" (Jan-Feb 1980) by Paul Lunde Citat: "...There may, in fact, be an even simpler explanation of the presence of "Antarctica" on the Piri Reis map..."
• McNeese State University: 3 MB Piri Reis kortet - høj opløsning
• Piri Reis Map @ Mysterious Earth
• Re: Piri Reis Map Citat: "...William Miller wrote:...The examinations that I have made of it show all sorts of errors that certainly falsify any claim of unusual accuracy for this map..."
• The Mysterious Origins of Man: The Oronteus Finaeus Map of 1532, by Paul Heinrich Paul Heinrich kritiserer her Dr. Charles Hapgood's Antarktis fortolkninger.
• Thorough article On Piri Reis and Oronteus maps debunking the Antartica claims.

• Webarchive backup: Survive 2012: Piri Reis Citat: "...The projections originate from a point at the intersection of the meridian of Alexandria (30°E) and the Tropic of Cancer....Longitudes were not able to be accurately calculated until the 1770's when John Harrison invented his Chronometer No.4. However, the Piri Reis map has correct and accurate relative longitudes...Maps by Mercator, Oronteus Fineaus and Phillippe Buache also show the pre-glacial Antarctica - before it was discovered ..."
• Webarchive backup: Commander Ohlmeyer's letter Citat: "...The geographical detail shown in the lower part of the map agrees very remarkably with the results of the seismic profile made across the top of the ice-cap by the Swedish-British Antarctic Expedition of 1949. This indicates the coastline had been mapped before it was covered by the ice-cap...."
• Piri Reis map (black and white with comments)
• Piri Re'is Map of 1513 Citat: "...The knowledge of longitude suggests either a people, or a mechanism, that are currently unknown to us. (This is because the ability to determine longitude with any degree of accuracy is not known before AD 1700 (?) ). The map is based on an equidistant projection with its center on the meridian of Alexandria in Egypt....The degree of accuracy contained in the Piri Re'is map is extraordinary...."
• Antarctica Citat: "...One such map is the Oronteus Finaeus World Map of 1532. The section of this map indicting Antarctica is shown below..."
• Piri Reis himself explains how he actually drew this map