The Piri Reis map is more than a literal masterpiece of cartography; it is also the map that has encouraged the construction of innumerable conspiracy theories and is still hotly contested.

The Piri Reis map is possibly the most contentious surviving artifact from the era of major geographical discoveries, as it is frequently contested. Conspiracy theorists consider Piri Reis’ map as proof of old study on the Antarctic coast done before the age of the Great Geographical Discoveries, which has fueled the arguments.

The History of the Piri Reis Map in Brief. The map’s history is intriguing. Gustav Adolf Deissmann, a German theologian, stumbled upon it by chance. It is known precisely when he discovered it – October 9, 1929. The Turkish Ministry of Education tasked Deissmann with cataloging non-Islamic materials in Topkapi Palace’s library.

The governor of the palace, Khalil Eden, initiated a search and мaged to discover some lost and forgotten things at Deissmann’s request. When Deissmann got his hands on the map, he thought he may be holding a one-of-a-kind treasure, so he presented it to orientalist Paul Calais, who identified it as a Piri Reis map.

Because it was the only known duplicate of a map of the world by Christopher Columbus at the time, and it was also the only 16th-century map that depicted South America in its physically accurate longitudinal location to Africa, the discovery generated an international sensation.

The western third of a world map drawn on gazelle skin parchment was preserved in the fragment discovered in Topkapi. The fragment’s measurements are also contested due to its broken aspect, however numbers of around 90 x 63 cm have been suggested.

The west coast of Africa and the east coast of South America are included in the remaining piece. The map was signed by Piri Reis, an Ottoman admiral, geographer, and cartographer, and dates from the Islamic month of Muharram in the year 919, which corresponds to 1513 in the Gregorian calendar.

It was sent to Sultan Selim I in 1517 as the Ottoman Empire’s first printed map. Piri Reis says he utilized twenty graphics and mappae mundi (world maps) to create the map, according to the legend.

Eight Ptolemaic maps, an Arabic map of India, four newly made Portuguese maps of Sindh, Pakistan, and a map of Christopher Columbus’ western regions, according to Reis.

Piri Reis’ map is presently housed at Topkapi Palace’s library in Istanbul, Turkey, but is rarely presented to the public. The Turkish 10 lira banknotes have a replica of the Piri Reis map on the back. Controversies, debates, and conspiracy theories The map has been the subject of several conspiracy theories since its discovery, with some claiming that it represents Antarctica 300 years before the southern polar continent was found.

The other incredible revelation is that not only is Antarctica portrayed, but it is depicted as it was before it was buried by an ice covering over 6,000 years ago. Professor Charles Hapgood presented his idea of what was portrayed on the map in the book “Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings” in 1965, which started the major discussion about Piri Reis’ map.

The professor examined the map with his students at the University of New Hampshire and discovered several irregularities, including the use of a Mercator projection and the inclusion of glacial Antarctica. Based on their awareness of the Earth’s spherical form, the Greeks knew and created maps with a cylindrical perspective.

Only around the end of the 16th century did Europeans begin to utilize the Mercator projection (the developer of the projection, cartographer Gerard Mercator, was born in 1512, and Piri Reis’ map was published the next year, in 1513). Only with the discovery of the chronometer in 1760 did European sailors learn to calculate longitude and latitude using astronomy and geometry.

And if these two differences can be properly explained by using Greek source maps and graphs from Alexander the Great’s time, then nothing can justify Antarctica’s inclusion. Conspiracy Theories surrounding the Piri Reis Map by Hapgood.

As a result of these considerations, Hapgood hypothesized that Piri Reis’ map was based on material dating back to at least 4000 BC, i.e. before all known civilizations had invented writing, let alone mapping the world around them.

According to Hapgood’s theory, an undiscovered prehistoric culture possessed the technology to sail the world’s major water routes and had a fairly precise understanding of the globe’s topography. The professor also stated that geographic descriptions of the interiors of continents may be conceivable if a “prehistoric super-civilization” possessed flying technology, making them masters of both sea and air navigation.

Evidence contradicting his beliefs Realists and serious scientists pointed out that the map depicts the South American shoreline rather correctly. The perfect similarity with contemporary physical characteristics along the coast and in th