Piri Re'is Map: Historical Mystery and Theories

Piri Re'is Map, 1513, Wiki image

Many mysteries in the history of humanity became clouded because of embellishment and the disappearance of civilizations. Archaeology, Paleontology and Earth Sciences have uncovered some of those mysteries. We know from Geology and Paleontology that the Earth has gone through some serious changes. 

The legend of Noah, a well-known biblical figure, which Hollywood has depicted from time to time with the latest portrayed by Russell Crowe of Gladiator and 3:10 to Yuma fame; was the central figure of the story of the Great Flood from the Book of Genesis. While the Wikipedia entry describes it as the Flood Myth– new evidence verifies the disastrous occurrence through marine archaeology.

According to Robert Ballard,

...some 12,000 years ago, much of the world was covered in ice. Where I live in Connecticut was ice a mile above my house, all the way back to the North Pole, about 15 million kilometers, that's a big ice cube. But then it started to melt. We're talking about the floods of our living history.

The source of myths are generally based upon some element of fact. The flood story has been found around the world in rock pictures from Australia to the North American ancient tribes, so the so-called “myth” is not just found in biblical Genesis.

Today, in modern times, another myth is forming – but this one is not based on any real event, person or fact. The consensus is that the Earth is warming and so the ice caps will melt and flood the Earth again. This may or may not occur, but there is more indication that another ice age will occur, and then after a time will melt again causing flooding – Earth's history repeating itself. The key element to the modern myth is that this occurrence, presumed to be in its first stage, has been caused by the “footprint” of mankind. But according to history this occurred at least once before and certainly not caused by human presence.

Four hundred feet below the surface of the Black Sea an ancient shoreline was discovered that is believed to date back to around 5,000 BC, which biblical scholars date the Genesis flood story. When correlating the different region of the world's ancient history, one finds that the flood did not encompass the entire planet at one time with dates ranging from 14,000 BC to 5,000 BC. Of course, some of the shoreline in spots around the world were lost because of other natural occurrences, like volcanoes and earthquakes; as in the case of the disappearance of Atlantis. Even in recent history, tsunami have wiped out the coastline of 11 countries in the Indian Ocean area.

One of the most amazing discoveries of something that presents surprising facts and at the same time presenting a mystery is the Piri Re'is Map. Only a fragment survived, depicting the western third of a world map that had been drawn on gazelle parchment. It details the coast of Africa and the eastern coast of South America. The map was signed by an Ottoman-Turkish admiral, geographer, and cartographer, Piri Re'is in the Islamic year of 919 AH (1513 AD). According o Re'is' account, there were eight ancient Ptolemaic maps, an ancient Arabic map of India, four Portuguese maps freshly drawn from Sindh, Pakistan, and a map by Christoper Columbus of the western world. Twenty charts in all and some scholars believe that the source of some of the more ancient maps came from the Library of Alexandria before it was destroyed.

The map was discovered by German theologian, Gustav Adolf Deissmann in 1929. It was a sensational discovery, found in the Topkapi Palace library. It was a thrilling discovery because Deissmann had found the only surviving map of Columbus that accurately showed the proper longitudinal position of South American in its relation to Africa. The map still remains in the Topkapi Palace library in Istanbul, Turkey.

There are notations on the surviving piece of map that once depicted the world, which was translated by Professor Afet Inan of Ankara in 1954 and the key to the chart and inscriptions can be found at the Sacred Text link.

North America depiction on the map is not as clear and precise as the southern and central American regions.

This map became even more famous when people began to speculate and make claims like: (1) the map shows the earth as seen from space, (2) the map shows the subglacial topography of Greenland, (3) the map shows the subglacial topography of Antarctica.

I will focus upon the last claim: depiction of Antarctica before it was covered with ice and snow.

For one thing, the marginal notes on the surviving piece of the world map refer to the coastline of so-called Antarctica by Portuguese ships blown off course. One source states the land was “very hot” - which does not describe Antarctica. In addition, the presumed “Antarctica” depiction is not separated by ocean from the tip of South America. Was this done to save room on the map?

The major astonishment about this map is that it shows great detail for a map created in 1513, especially considering that portions of the map was taken from older more ancient sources.

From a source published by World Mysteries website:

The official science has been saying all along that the ice-cap which covers the Antarctic is million years old. The Piri Reis map shows that the northern part of that continent has been mapped before the ice did cover it. That should make think it has been mapped million years ago, but that's impossible since mankind did not exist at that time. Further and more accurate studies have proven that the last period of ice-free condition in the Antarctic ended about 6000 years ago. There are still doubts about the beginning of this ice-free period, which has been put by different researchers everything between year 13000 and 9000 BC.
The question is: Who mapped the Queen Maud Land of Antarctic 6000 years ago? Which unknown civilization had the technology or the need to do that?

The Turkish admiral-cartographer notated that the a major amount of data was copied from maps dating earlier than the 4^thcentury BC. Major person who disclaims the Antarctica theory is Steven Dutch, University of Wisconsin of Natural and Applied Sciences.

Geologic evidence confirms that the Queen Maud Land could have been charted in its ice-free state about 4,000 BC; however, the flood story of Noah is dated 5,000 BC. In that 1,000 years, could Antarctica have been recovered with ice and snow?

The verification of the map was recorded in 1960 by Harold Ohlmeyer, USAF. He stated that the map was created, or at least copied from an original ancient map, that depicts Antarctica before it was covered with ice. The region is now under ice about one mile deep and certainly was covered in 1513. Many scientists claim and still insist that the ice cap of Antarctica is about a million years old, theoretically caused by the shifting of the Earth's axis when hit by a comet or asteroid. Charles Hapgood(The Path of the Pole) dealt with that theory and was confirmed to be possible by Albert Einstein.

Even if that is correct, there is no evidence that humans were present that far back in history, and if so, the knowledge would have had to have been passed by oral methods instead of written records.

Erich von Däniken, author of Chariot of the Gods?Maintains that the Piri Re'is map depicts Antarctica before the ice because it was mapped from an aerial view by ancient astronauts. He wrote his second book, Gods from Outer Space, while serving a prison sentence for several financial crimes that included fraud. Despite that, he became the co-founder of the AAS RAand designed and founded the Mystery Park(Jungfrau Park) in Interlaken, Switzerland in 2003.

The Piri Re'is map is believed to have inspired the research for an Ice Age civilization that has yet to be found. The scale is off, but it is a compass-oriented map instead of being based on latitudeand longitude. Several books have been written about this map and its compelling evidence of such knowledge dating farther back than previous thought.

It is interesting and some of the theories are questionable, so the map still remains, for the most part, a historical mystery.

I leave speculation and conclusions to the reader.

The documentary celebrating the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the map was presented by the University of Greenwich. .

Here is an excellent video that presents the evidence towards the question - what maps did Piri Re'is copy from and how were they so accurate?