A bent South America, not a bare Antarctica · Ancient maps of Antarctica

Summary

This sheet contradicts the first one. On the Piri Reis map the southernmost feature that can be identified with certainty lies near Cananéia, at about 25 degrees south. Beyond that point the coast curves sharply east, and the historian of cartography Svat Soucek notes that it was not unusual for mapmakers to bend a coastline to fit the surface available. The parchment simply ran out of room. Specialists add that there is no historical or textual evidence that Piri Reis knew the far southern places that Hapgood's reading requires, and that Hapgood himself acknowledged disregarding the map's text and some of its placements. The geologist Paul Heinrich points to a basic flaw: the seismic profile of 1949 shows the rock under the ice, not an ice-free Antarctica, and it ignores that land rises once the ice melts away. The survey could not measure even one percent of the area drawn on the map, and later studies with much more data find no significant similarity with Antarctica's coast, with or without ice. Hapgood's date of 17,000 BC for an ice-free continent is also wrong by tens of millions of years: Antarctica has been glaciated for about 34 million years. The consensus is that the map shows a distorted South America and a theoretical southern land, and not a lost survey.

Official version

Official version
The southernmost feature clearly identified on the Piri Reis map lies near Cananéia, and beyond that point the coast curves sharply east.
- Piri Reis map, Wikipedia
  Beyond this point, the coast curves sharply east
Official version
Cartographic historian Svat Soucek notes that it was not unusual for cartographers to adjust the orientation of a coastline to fit the surface available.
- Piri Reis map, Wikipedia
  it was not unusual for cartographers to adjust the orientation of a coastline to fit the surface available
Official version
Aside from subjective visual comparisons, there is no historical evidence that Piri Reis could have known of these southern places and no textual evidence in the map.
- Piri Reis map, Wikipedia
  there is no historical evidence that Piri Reis could have known of these places and no textual evidence in the map
Official version
Hapgood acknowledged that his theory disregarded the text and some of the placement of land masses on the map.
- Piri Reis map, Wikipedia
  Hapgood acknowledged that his theory disregarded the text and some of the placement of land masses on the map
Official version
According to geologist Paul Heinrich, Hapgood's argument mistakenly conflates the topography of Antarctica below the ice with a hypothetical ice-free Antarctica, and the 1949 survey could not measure even one percent of the area drawn in the map.
- Piri Reis map, Wikipedia
  this mistakenly conflates the topography of Antarctica below the ice with a hypothetical ice-free Antarctica
Official version
The expected topography of Antarctica using modern data and accounting for isostatic rebound shows no similarities with the Piri Reis map.
- Piri Reis map, Wikipedia
  The expected topography of Antarctica using modern data and accounting for isostatic rebound shows no similarities with the Piri Reis map
Official version
Hapgood mistakenly believed that Antarctica had been free of ice in 17,000 BC, whereas the ice sheet escalated about 34 million years ago.
- Antarctic ice sheet, Wikipedia
  escalated during the Eocene–Oligocene extinction event about 34 million years ago
- Piri Reis map, Wikipedia
  Hapgood mistakenly believed that Antarctica had been free of ice in 17,000 BC