The Ancient Maps Referenced in Legacy of Atlantis

In Legacy of Atlantis, I reference three maps: the Piri Reis Map, the Oronteus Finaeus Map, and the DeMarco Map. The DeMarco Map, far more ancient than the other maps and drawn on Egyptian papyrus, is fictional. The Piri Reis Map and the Oronteus Finaeus Map, however, are entirely real, and they are among the most debated cartographic artifacts in history. The question that has fascinated scholars, historians, and mystery enthusiasts alike for decades is both straightforward and deeply strange: how could anyone in the Middle Ages accurately map what appears to be the ice-free coastline of Antarctica?

The Piri Reis Map (1513)

The Piri Reis Map was drawn in 1513 by Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis, who created it on the skin of a gazelle. The map was lost to history until its rediscovery in 1929, and only one-third of the original survives today. Admiral Piri Reis himself documented his sources: eight Ptolemaic maps, four Portuguese maps, an Arabic map, and the map of Christopher Columbus. Some scholars believe the source material for the Ptolemaic maps originated in the ancient Library of Alexandria, dating to the 4th century BC, a detail that directly inspired my fictional DeMarco Map. Others attribute them to the work of Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD. Either way, the source maps were ancient, and their accuracy raises intriguing questions.

What those sources could not have done is directly survey Antarctica, a continent that has been covered by ice for over a million years. Antarctica wasn’t even officially discovered until 1820. Maybe an ancient Phoenician ship reached its ice-covered shores, but the odds are very slim that it would have been able to return to the Mediterranean and tell the tale of the ice-covered land.

I had the privilege of viewing a copy of the Piri Reis Map on a recent trip to Istanbul, in the Library of Ahmed III at the Topkapi Palace Museum. I had no clue that the map was on display and caught my breath as I turned and saw it. Our guide told me that I was his first client who recognized the map and understood its significance. Even learning that the original was in controlled storage didn’t deflate my enthusiasm. The copy was striking and far larger than I had expected. I have included a photograph I took of it at the bottom of this post.

The Oronteus Finaeus Map (1531)

Drawn in 1531 by French cartographer Oronce Fine, the Oronteus Finaeus Map is, if anything, even more detailed than the Piri Reis Map. It also depicts Antarctica without ice. Charles Hapgood, working alongside cartographers from the U.S. Air Force and Strategic Air Command, identified 50 points on the Oronteus Finaeus Map that correspond closely to Antarctic features confirmed only by modern scientific methods. Hapgood discovered the map in 1960 while conducting research at the Library of Congress, where it remains today in the Geography and Map Division.

While Hapgood’s conclusions remain controversial, the fact that he conducted his analysis with military cartographers using the best tools available at the time makes his work intriguing, even if many scholars ultimately disagree with them.

What the Maps Might Mean

Interpretations of the maps vary widely. Erich von Däniken, in his landmark book Chariots of the Gods, argued that the maps demonstrate the interaction of extraterrestrials with early human civilizations. Hapgood, in Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, attributed them to an unknown pre-classical civilization with advanced navigational knowledge. Mainstream scholars interpret both maps as showing exaggerated and distorted continuation of the coastline of Argentina rather than Antarctica. In the Atlantis Universe, the answer is different again: the maps are the legacy of the interaction of Atlanteans, appearing as mythological gods, with ancient cartographers. Fragments of that knowledge survived to the Middle Ages to be found and used by Piri Reis and Oronce Fine to draw their maps.

The Anachronisms That Started It All

My character Richard DeMarco references his father's lifelong fascination with anachronisms in the historical record, moments where evidence exists that simply should not, given what we know about human history. To me these maps are compelling examples. Two books that shaped my own thinking, both of which I have read and still have on my shelf, are Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods and Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson's Forbidden Archaeology. Both catalogue historical anomalies that, taken together, suggest our understanding of the ancient world may be far less complete than we assume. Both books, and the anachronisms contained therein, are fertile ground for the imagination of any writer.

The existence of the Piri Reis Map and the Oronteus Finaeus Map were among the seeds from which Legacy of Atlantis and the Atlantis Universe sprouted.

Further Reading

Library of Congress — Oronce Fine, Noua, et integra uniuersi orbis descriptio (1531).  https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3200.ct001393/

Gregory C. McIntosh, The Piri Reis Map of 1513 (University of Georgia Press).  https://www.ugapress.org/9780820321578/the-piri-reis-map-of-1513/

University of Canterbury — Critical Review of Hapgood's Antarctic interpretation of the Piri Reis Map.  https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/items/42cc07df-ece6-4ea2-8b68-757fd914dddc

[Photo: Piri Reis Map — Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul — © John Topping]