Piri Reis Map

Columbus, when he sailed West, used as reference a number of maps sourced from the Chinese empire (among others)... In particular, he might have used the 1492 Martin Behaim globe as his primary reference. [0]

The Martin Behaim globe shows Cipangu, which is actually the Japanese island of Kyushu as depicted by the Chinese. It also show part of Indonesia. Worth noting is that when Columbus sailed West, he was not looking for "the Indies", but for Cipangu, described by Marco Polo as "the land of gold". [1]

So it seems that Piri Reis compiled recent south-american data together with older asia-pacific data. The so-called "antartica" part of the Piri reis map appears to match Java as shown on world maps of the same period. Mystery solved, I guess... (check for yourself by comparing the Piri Reis map and the Martin Behaim globe). This is supported by the fact that the Piri Reis map also seems to show Cipangu off North America, and describes the "antartica" land at the bottom as a warm land.

Anyway, the outlandish claims of the article about the extraordinary accuracy of the map are complete BS. Check it yourself. [2]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Japan#mediaviewer/Fil...

[1] http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2008/07/27/to-be-sorted/cip...

[2] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Piri_rei...

A site explaining the mystery: http://www.diegocuoghi.com/Piri_Reis/PiriReis_eng.htm

In BBC's Museum Mysteries docus, in the Topkapı Palace episode, they offer their theory for this.

They think that Piri Reis (commander of the navy at that time) obtained maps from ships that passed through the Bosphorus. He was then able to draw a current map of the world from all the diverse information.

They basically explored the world without ever leaving home.

Side note: I used to play a game called "New Horizon" (or known as the Uncharted Waters 2 [1]). One of the characters in the game goes by the name of Philly Reis, from Turkey. His level is off the chart (Sailing, Fighting, etc).

Didn't know there's actually someone by the name of Piri Reis from Turkey in the real world!

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncharted_Waters#Uncharted_Wate...

The Piri Reis Map also finds mention in the controversial 'Chariots of Gods' book by Erich Von Daniken which is largely labeled as 'pseudoscientific'. The book as it is about Alien Intervention theory proposes aerial survey as the key to the accuracy of the map

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariots_of_the_Gods%3F

Back in '97, I was part of a team that built Piri The Explorer Ship, a Myst-like edutainment title, aimed to educate about the map... Check out the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrG5-1b0pgk

spam blog, just google any paragraph and you will see

another mystery: https://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/197704/al-idrisi.and....

Text copied (incompletely) from here, I believe: http://glenavalon.com/pirireis.html

But even better is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri_Reis_map

Which links to (comparison to modern accurate maps): http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/pseudosc/piriries.htm