The Claim
An advanced ancient civilisation mapped the world thousands of years before “we” did
The Piri Reis map is an ancient map believed to be from the year 1513, create by an Ottoman admiral named Piri Reis. Normally an ancient map isn’t anything unusual, but this one appears to show various unexplored regions, along with the coast line of an ice-free Antarctica.
Piri Reis spent most of his life at sea, and before joining the Turkish navy he gained many riches from working as a pirate. Some of these riches included maps, which at the time were invaluable for a seafarer, as much of the world was still unexplored and a new map could hold the secret to new lands and bounties.
During a raid he attacked one of the ships belonging to Christopher Columbus and captured maps containing locations across south America. After spending many years at sea making his own maps and capturing many others, he decided to make a “world” map, something that wasn’t seen anywhere else for more than 200 years.
This map was drawn on Gazelle skin, and included every continent and coast line in the known world, including the coastline of Antarctica without any signs of freezing. Only one third of the map survives today but clearly shows the western coast of Africa and the eastern coast of south America, as well as the north coastline of Antarctica.
The problem with an ice free Antarctica is that every credible estimate claims that it would be an absolute minimum of 4000 BC or earlier for it to be ice free. The map also shows that the continent is much further East than it is today, leading to many claims that the whole continent shifted somehow into colder climates.
Another interesting thing about the map is that it shows what appear to be drawings of animals and other markings, possibly depicting settlements or ports. Since there was no Way the continent could have been ice free at the time of the map, this can only reasonably be explained by the Piri Reis map being partially made up of another very ancient map.
The map is known to be a collection of other maps he collected during his time at sea, including 8 maps from the 2nd century, a map of India, 4 Portuguese maps and one captured from a ship belonging to Christopher Columbus which included details of South America. Which of these maps, if any included the details of a pre-frozen Antarctica is unclear as non of them have survived.
An explanation as to how this map could have been made falls into 2 categories. One is the conspiracy theory side, with talk of aliens and entire continents moving thousands of miles somehow, but these can be dismissed fairly easily.
The other side of the argument is that what appears to be the coast line of Antarctica is actually the coastline of south America. It appears on the map to sharply turn to the east and spread along the bottom of the map towards Africa. This would only work though if Piri Reis hadn’t found out he could sail around the southern tip of South America and thought it was joined to Antarctica and all one big continent, which seems unlikely for such an experienced sailor using so many maps.
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