Being an admiral in the navy, Piri Re'is was able to accompany his passion; cartography, but that does not explain how he was able to map the Antarctic bank with such detail. Especially aback the bank was covered in ice at that time and had been for ages! Of course, there was addition advantage to actuality able to captain the seas for Piri Re'is, and that was that he had admission to abounding of the maps that were fatigued afore his, and it has been bent that he got abundant of his advice from comparing and acknowledging the capacity in those maps. So, one would accept that he got abounding of the capacity of the Antarctic bank from maps charted afore his, but there is a botheration with that assumption, that allotment of the Antarctic has been bent by authentic studies to accept been covered by ice for almost 6,000 years! So what avant-garde acculturation was about 6,000 years ago with the technology to not alone accommodate these authentic details, but accomplish a map of some affectionate from which to copy?
During the Middle Ages, there were a accumulation of maps alleged "portolani", which showed the accepted sailing routes. These were of abundant use to the sailors of the aboriginal times. But there were additionally maps of beneath accepted routes and coasts. These maps were able-bodied attentive by those who bedevilled them. Christopher Columbus was said to own a few of these attenuate maps. The Library of Alexandria was additionally accepted to accept authentic maps of these bottom accepted routes, fatigued from the belief and adventures of age-old voyages anesthetized bottomward from bearing to bearing by a cardinal of the age-old civilizations.
In 1204, some of these attenuate maps were additionally begin in Constantinople, and were actuality acclimated by European sailors. It became bright that voyages were fabricated from pole to pole by age-old mariners, and that some of these age-old peoples sailed afore the antarctic was covered by ice. Not alone this, but they had acutely authentic instruments of aeronautics and could artifice curve of breadth and breadth added accurately than the European sailors of the day.
In 1953, the U.S. Fleet Hydrographic Bureau evaluated the Piri Re'is map and assured that such accurateness could alone be fatigued by way of aeriform surveillance, and as if that weren't amazing enough, the Hydrographic Bureau alike begin mistakes in some of the maps of the present day, and acclimated the Piri Re'is map to accomplish corrections! Okay, so who flew 6,000 years ago?
Dr. Charles Hapgood, columnist of "Maps of the Age-old Sea Kings", beatific a accumulating of age-old maps to be advised by Richard Strachan of Massachusettes Institute of Technology. Mr. Strachan assured that a ability of apple trigonometry, the curvature of the earth, and methods of bump had to accept been accepted by the cartographers who drew these maps.
A approach presented by Dr. Hapgood is that there was a arctic shift, which was agilely accepted by Albert Einstein, and therefore, this allotment of the Antarctic was not covered by ice as far aback as ahead assumed. This, approach however, does not abate the actuality that absolute curve of breadth and breadth were fabricated not alone on this map, but abounding added age-old maps from these acutely aboriginal periods in our history, that the algebraic ability acclimated by these aboriginal sailors was astounding, that these bodies knew they wouldn't abatement off the end of the Earth, and that they absolutely had ships that could survive these betraying waters.
It is rather arrogant of us to anticipate that the acumen we are so avant-garde is because we are added able than our ancestors. What ability we accept and what technology we adore is annihilation altered than what abundant individuals accept done through the ages, and that is to body aloft the adventures and acumen of those afore them. Bravery, intellect, curiosity, and addition existed bags of years afore us, by civilizations we may not alike be acquainted of, and while it is acceptable and appropriate of us to account their accomplishments with awe, it is bigger of us to body on the ability they accept anesthetized bottomward to us, and use it as a absolute access for all people.
Other abundant and mysteriously authentic maps are:
"Dulcert's Portolano", 1339, fatigued with absolute breadth curve of Europe and North Africa, and breadth curve of the Mediterranean and Black Sea that are off by alone bisected a degree.
A map fatigued by Turkish Hadji Ahmed, 1559, that shows a band of acreage abutting Siberia and Alaska.
A map fatigued by Oronteus Fineus, who additionally drew the authentic bank of Antarctica, and additionally showed Greenland as two abstracted islands, which has been afresh accurate by a French arctic expedition.
The "Zeno's chart", 1380, assuming a ample breadth including Greenland, whose attention is uncanny.
A map affected by a abstraction on a ample bedrock cavalcade in China, 1137, with so abounding accepted credibility begin on western maps that one ability accept they came from a accepted source.
The "Hamy-King Chart", 1502, while absolute a few errors that were apparently a aftereffect of the accumulation of several maps application altered styles, it is absorbing as a apple map assuming the accomplished of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
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