Piri Reis (original name: Hadji Muhammad) was an Ottoman admiral born around 1465, in Gallipoli on the Dardanelles. He began to serve as a privateer in the Ottoman Navy as a youth and after many years of fighting against Spanish, Genoese and Venetian navies, he rose to the rank of Reis (Admiral). Following his defeat in 1554 (when he was about 90 years old) against the Portuguese navy in the Red Sea, the sultan ordered him beheaded.
He is best known for his maps and charts collected in his Kitab-i Bahrieh or the Book of the Sea. He gained his fame as a map maker after a small part of his world map (prepared in 1513) was discovered in 1929, in Istanbul. The most interesting points of the map were its accuracy and a small continent that seemed to be linked to the southernmost tip of Southern America. Various people including Charles Hapgood and Erich von Däniken considered this as a sign of the discovery of the continent of Antarctica many centuries before the traditionally accepted date, and even as a proof for the presence of extraterrestrial civilizations, which were supposed to have drawn the original map. However, most scientists do not agree that the Piri Reis map is any more accurate than might be expected based on contemporary geographical knowledge and guesswork.
The sources and references of the map have been noted in detail in Ottoman-Turkish on the map and he seems to have based the map on the works of Ptolemy, Portuguese maps, and Christopher Columbus. The small landmass depicted on the southernmost part of the map is considered to be an imaginary continent, which was assumed to counterbalance the continents of the northern hemisphere, since the time of ancient Greeks (Terra Australis). More likely though it is just the continuation of the South American coast which would have otherwise had to end abruptly half way down. There is also evidence that it is a later addition to the original map and is displayed awkwardly only so as to fit in. The most interesting point of the map is that it reflects Columbus' ideas about the new lands to the west and is probably the best-preserved copy of one of his earliest maps.
External links
- Open Directory Project: Maps, Historical
- Gregory C. McIntosh, The tale of two admirals - Columbus and the Piri Reis Map of 1513, Mercator's World (Maj/June, 2000).
- McNeese State University: The oldest map of America drawn by Piri Reis; by Prof. Dr. Afetinan
- McNeese State University: The Piri Reis map of 1513 contains notes written on the map in Turkish Citat: "...IV. This map was drawn by Piri Ibn Haji Mehmed, known as the nephew of Kemal Reis, in Gallipoli, in the month of muharrem of the year 919 (that is, between the 9th of March and the 7th of April of the year 1513)...."
- Fra McNeese State University: "Piri Reis and the Columbian Theory" in "Aramco World Magazine" (Jan-Feb 1980) by Paul Lunde Citat: "...There may, in fact, be an even simpler explanation of the presence of "Antarctica" on the Piri Reis map..."
- McNeese State University: 3 MB Piri Reis kortet - høj opløsning
- Piri Reis Map @ Mysterious Earth
- Re: Piri Reis Map Citat: "...William Miller wrote:...The examinations that I have made of it show all sorts of errors that certainly falsify any claim of unusual accuracy for this map..."
- The Mysterious Origins of Man: The Oronteus Finaeus Map of 1532, by Paul Heinrich Paul Heinrich kritiserer her Dr. Charles Hapgood's Antarktis fortolkninger.
- Good debunking article On Piri Reis and Oronteus maps
External links - presumably less trustworthy
- Webarchive backup: Survive 2012: Piri Reis Citat: "...The projections originate from a point at the intersection of the meridian of Alexandria (30°E) and the Tropic of Cancer....Longitudes were not able to be accurately calculated until the 1770's when John Harrison invented his Chronometer No.4. However, the Piri Reis map has correct and accurate relative longitudes...Maps by Mercator, Oronteus Fineaus and Phillippe Buache also show the pre-glacial Antarctica - before it was discovered ..."
- Webarchive backup: Commander Ohlmeyer's letter Citat: "...The geographical detail shown in the lower part of the map agrees very remarkably with the results of the seismic profile made across the top of the ice-cap by the Swedish-British Antarctic Expedition of 1949. This indicates the coastline had been mapped before it was covered by the ice-cap...."
- Piri Reis map (black and white with comments)
- Piri Re'is Map of 1513 Citat: "...The knowledge of longitude suggests either a people, or a mechanism, that are currently unknown to us. (This is because the ability to determine longitude with any degree of accuracy is not known before AD 1700 (?) ). The map is based on an equidistant projection with its center on the meridian of Alexandria in Egypt....The degree of accuracy contained in the Piri Re'is map is extraordinary...."
- Antarctica Citat: "...One such map is the Oronteus Finaeus World Map of 1532. The section of this map indicting Antarctica is shown below..."
- The Piri Re'is Map Includes high resolution images, commentary on the modern disputes about the significance of the map and translation of the map commentary.