The Piri Reis Map is One of the Most Controversial Maps of all Time

One of the most controversial maps of all time, the "Piri Reis Map," was made in 1513 on a gazelle skin. Although today, we have only about a third of the map (which can be found but seldom seen at the Topkapi Palace library in Istanbul, Turkey), we can very clearly see that Piri Reis, the Turkish admiral who created the map (and lived to be beheaded at the age of ninety), drew the continents of North and South America, the Atlantic Ocean, and most strangely, Antarctica, although Antarctica was not discovered (as far as we know) until 1818. Moreover, it was not until 1949 that a British/Scandinavian group with modern equipment to see through the mile-thick ice mapped the continental landmass.

Considering that the Piri Reis Map was created in 1513, only a couple of decades after Columbus's discoveries of the New World and long before Antarctica was discovered, it challenges cartographers (map-makers) and geographers with its remarkably complete view of the world, including Antarctica.

Did the ancient Chinese navigate and chart the waters around Antarctica? Piri Reis himself claimed to have used centuries-old sources. Or did Piri Reis get help from navigators from another planet, who thoughtfully provided their findings for a sixteenth century Ottoman Turk? We do know that Piri Reis collected maps and that his 1513 map shows direct influence from maps of Christopher Columbus.

What we have left of the Piri Reis map shows the Atlantic Ocean from the east coast of South America to the African west coast, with a number of Atlantic islands distinctly drawn. Most amazing of all, the Piri Reis map shows a continent to the south (Antarctica?) to the south, all with a level of geographical knowledge that fans of the Piri Reis map believe was not possible for a 1513 mapmaker.

Less enthusiastic cartographers claim the southern coast on the Piri Reis map does not closely resemble the coast of Antarctica. Long before Antarctica was discovered, maps depicted a southern landmass based on the assumption that there had to be something on the bottom of the world to balance the northern landmass.

Fifteen years after his 1513 map, Piri Reis drew a second world map. On the small part of the map that survives, we can see Greenland and North America, ranging from Florida, Cuba and parts of Central America in the south to Newfoundland and Labrador to the north, again with his amazing detail and knowledge. But nothing in the second Piri Reis map can equal the tantalizing view of a land that Piri Reis was not supposed to know about that he gave us in his first world map.