The 1513 Piri Reis Map Mystery

In 1929, a group of historians found an amazing map drawn on a gazelle skin. Research showed that it was a genuine document drawn in 1513 by Piri Reis, a famous admiral of the Turkish fleet in the sixteenth century. His passion was cartography. His high rank within the Turkish navy allowed him to have a privileged access to the Imperial Library of Constantinople. The Turkish admiral admits in a series of notes on the map that he compiled and copied the data from a large number of source maps, some of which dated back to the fourth century BC or earlier.

The Piri Reis map shows the western coast of Africa, the eastern coast of South America, and the northern coast of Antarctica. The northern coastline of Antarctica is perfectly detailed. The most puzzling however is not so much how Piri Reis managed to draw such an accurate map of the Antarctic region 300 years before it was discovered, but that the map shows the coastline under the ice. Geological evidence confirms that the latest date Queen Maud Land could have been charted in an ice-free state is 4000 BC.

Link 1

Link 2

What I find interesting about the Piri Reis map is that it shows a submarine canyon which bisects Antarctica under the ice. We didnt know about this until the 1950s, but the Germans found it in the 1930s (before they began surveying it with submarines), and presumably used it as an entrance point for U Boats to thier bases.

Did the Nazis have a copy of this map? Or did they have copies of the original maps that Piri Reis copied?

Hitler was known to have collected many atrefacts in his rise to power (spear of destiny etc.) that would have enabled him to succeed in his quest for world domination.

I wouldn't doubt that the Nazi party would have gone after this type of information to empower their quest.

[Edited on 27-4-2003 by deepwaters]

This is a very interesting subject that I have been looking into for some time.

The main points I have come across so far is that Rudolf Hess was a member of the Thule Society (oddly, I dont find evidence that Hitler was actually a member, but could be wrong on that), and commanded at least one of the several German expeditions to Neu Schwabenland (Antarctica) int he 1930s. Very little is known of what they were looking for or what they found during these expeditions, but they apparently expended consideral captial in them.

Originally posted by dragonrider
This is a very interesting subject that I have been looking into for some time.

The main points I have come across so far is that Rudolf Hess was a member of the Thule Society (oddly, I dont find evidence that Hitler was actually a member, but could be wrong on that), and commanded at least one of the several German expeditions to Neu Schwabenland (Antarctica) int he 1930s. Very little is known of what they were looking for or what they found during these expeditions, but they apparently expended consideral captial in them.

Have a look at this thread OPERATION HIGHJUMP

We've had aspects of this numerous times here at ATs -most recently, as I recall, some geologicially-illiterate drivel about continents slipping because of melting ice!
It would be useful to recall that "southern continents" are to be found on maps of classical antiquity: not because anyone had been there but because it was felt that the earth really ought to be "balanced" so there had to be a southern land mass to match Eurasia, as it were.
There's a good little discussion of Piri Reis, Hapgood and so forth here:
www.violations.dabsol.co.uk...

It's also worth reminding ourselves that some parts of the map (easy find-able on the net) are glaringly wrong e.g. the Caribbean.

All good points. But the fact remains that the map could be much older because it was made from much older maps.

I quite agree, Fox-S: it is very intriguing, hence the popularity of the topic.
Incidentally, cyber-chums: all who like a good "fantasy/the unexplained" read would probably enjoy searching Neu Schwabenland and encountering numerous tales of a secret Fourth Reich and a Nazi moonbase etc.

With the tens of thousand's of years that humans have lived on this planet, migrating, forming new cilivalisation's and so on. It has, and is quite accepatable to have the ignorant conception that these continents where not known about or discovered, until Western explorers staked their claim for the history books. Just because conventional history dictate's one point of view, we can not dismiss the massive amount of other information for the other.

Graham Handcock, Author of Fingerprints of The Gods has had many studies of this map done. His theories may be subjective but the information gathered by him is very objective .

I've posted his website here, but since this is ATS, I expect most of you would have all ready been here.

www.grahamhandcock.com...

You could also go to my Thread -New Zealand History-A Radical point of view-. There are some more theories concerning the map within the web site.

done at the period of Plato, and that it's a map to the Atlantides.

I've read about all the theories of this map; chartographed by aliens, civilisations existing before the pharaohs and more.

But recently Ive read that the previous maps that this one was drawn from, most likely came from the 1421-23 exploration of the Chinese Treasure Junks. Cheak out this site or get a copy of Gavin Menzies, 1421 The Year China Discovered The World.

www.1421.tv...

By far, this is the most belivable theory.

Estragon really qouting Ptolemy would be the most unintelligent thing I've seen you do. Simalar is the earth-crust displacement theory you were trying to diss.

For anyone interested in this map and others predating western voyages of exploration, I do believe that this will answer your questions. But, no doubt it will be an anti-climax, or to say the least a let-down for many who tended towards the "far-out" lines of theory.

Oh, dear. I fancy you'll find that among the English-speaking inhabitants of Planet Sane "quoting" tends to imply a repetition of an original word or two. Did I even mention Ptolemy?
"Allude" might be the word for which you are struggling. It's under "A" very near the front of the dictionary.
And the idea started 4 centuries before with Aistotle. The point is that, because it ( Terra Australis Incognita, or Aristotle's "antarctica" -i.e. the opposite of the Arctic, "the bear" -as in constellation) seemed logical, it was present on maps for a millennium and a half, and nothing whatsoever about any voyages can safely be inferred from this.
Read the archives for the ice-pressure drivel.
"A little learning is a dangerous thing", the poet Pope assuerd us.
We can now see that no learning whatsoever is merely a ridiculous thing.

I dug up this old thread because the map itself is very interesting and I did finally get a chance to look at "Earth's shifting crust: a key to some basic problems of earth science". The other day I read an article about the earth's changing magnetic field, which got me thinking about pole shifts, etc. Some people believe a pole shift would do nothing, other believe it would be catastrophic. I thought the map was interesting in that it depicts antartica in it's ice-free form which implies it much have had a different climate at some point in human history. Anyway, I thought I would resurrect this old topic and see if anyone has any thoughts on it. The link I was looking at was Piri Reis Map

Not only does Gavin Menzies discuss the Piri Reis map in his 1421 map, but he also adds some new information on it in his new book 1434. For those that have 1434, the information is on pages 130 and 131. For those who have not read 1421 and 1434, I highly recommend them. There is, as always, controversy about any book that suggests new ideas, but I can tell you, since I know Gavin, that research on his books have been extensive. Anytime someone proposes something that goes against the "prevailing thought", they are subject to criticism and vilification. His arguments are compelling. I don't wish to get into arguments over Gavin in this thread. I've already battled other academics in the past on this. I suggest that you pick them up, read them, and decide for yourselves. Both books are excellent reads. (And no, I don't get any royalties for suggesting this!)

reply to post by mapsurfer_
I remember reading about this many years ago. The Piri Reis map was mentioned in several books written in the 70s and 80s. Even Erich Von Dumikin mentioned the map in one of his books. It is EXTEREMELY odd that a map drawn in 1513, should contain such a detailed map of the coast of Antarctica then covered in ice. There can only be a few logical conclusions here.

Some people say (and I agree) that what it shows is not Antarctica but the southern most part of South America.

Comparing the landmarks should be enough to confirm it, but most links point to ridiculously small versions.

Here is the best version I know, and it's good enough to compare landmarks in South America and Antarctica to see what it shows.

That page also has a translation of the notes written on the map, and judging by those, the Portuguese were the first to reach Antarctica.

I just wish the scanned image was a higher resolution. One of those pages had some annotation. I just wanted to get a closer look at the map to compare it to antarctic map. Someone up there in the thread said something about rivers which lay below the ice, which scientist confirmed existed. It is just hard for me to swallow, since that average ice thickness is a 2000m.

reply to post by deepwaters


Read about the map here, including some scathing criticism. I wouldn't put all my eggs in the Piri Reis basket.