Thule Island

 

The Claim
There’s a small ancient island close to the Arctic circle that no one has been able to find

 

The island of Thule is the furthest northern island as mentioned in ancient Roman and Greek texts, with the first mention of this place coming from a Greek explorer named Pytheas who wrote about the island in 320 BC.

 

During the first century a Roman geographer named Pomponius Mela drew Thule on a map, placing it north of Scythia, which was a region in central Europe. Another Greek explorer of the first century claims that the island is six days sail north of Britain, and is near the frozen sea.

 

It was then mentioned again numerous times within Greek and Roman maps and records, until the last “ancient” mention of it which came from a historian named Procopius.

 

In the early 6th century he wrote about how he had been to Thule, and even recorded there being 25 different tribes living on the island. After this all mentions of Thule disappeared until reasonably recent times.

 

Now everyone loves a good story about a long lost ancient mystical island hidden somewhere in the frozen seas of the north, but unfortunately it seems that Thule is just that, a story.

 

Of course there are the supporters of the myth who claim its hidden by mist or some kind of other wacky story, but there hasn’t been any kind of actual evidence of its existence.

 

Even though the island was recorded numerous times by not only the Romans and Greeks but various other explorers and travellers, it seems all these records come from a very long time ago.

 

Greek records also mention other places like Atlantis amongst various other, apparently mythical locations. The reality is that Thule is most likely a miss mapping of either Iceland or one of the islands around the coast of Norway.