ATLAS

VariantOMEGA-10-21-1Sheet 1 of 6 of the dossier Ancient maps of Antarctica

The Piri Reis map as ice-free Antarctica

The version that reads the southern edge of the 1513 Ottoman map as the coast of Antarctica, mapped before the ice.

Summary

This sheet follows the best-known version of the theory: the idea that the southern edge of the world map made in 1513 by the Ottoman admiral Piri Reis is a coast of Antarctica as it looked without ice. A fragment, about a third of the original, was found in the Topkapi Palace archives in 1929 and drew attention because it contains part of a lost map by Columbus. The Antarctic reading began with Arlington Mallery, a civil engineer and amateur archaeologist, who said in the 1950s that the coast looked mapped before the ice. The historian Charles Hapgood then set the study as a class project with his students. According to their account, the coastline strongly resembled that of Queen Maud Land and was accurate to within about 20 miles. Hapgood presented the result in 1966 as evidence that a pre-classical civilization had explored the globe. Supporters note that Antarctica was not discovered until 1820, 307 years after the map, and they treat this gap as the heart of the mystery. Writers such as Erich von Däniken, Donald Keyhoe and Graham Hancock later cited the argument for ancient astronauts, flying saucers and a lost civilization. The sheet documents the thesis; the divergence sheet shows how specialists answer it.

What the thesis says

The sources show where these claims circulate, not that they are true.

  1. Thesis

    The Antarctic reading of the map comes from Captain Arlington H. Mallery, a civil engineer and amateur archaeologist, who said the map seemed to show Antarctica mapped when it was free of ice.

  2. Thesis

    Hapgood and his students concluded that there was a striking similarity between the Piri Reis coastline and the Queen Maud Land coast, and that the map was accurate to within about 20 miles in that area.

  3. Thesis

    Hapgood proposed in 1966 that a pre-classical, undiscovered civilization had explored the globe, and that the map shows Antarctica as it looked without glacial ice.

    • Piri Reis map, Wikipedia
      proposed a theory of global exploration by a pre-classical undiscovered civilization
  4. Thesis

    The supporters' main argument is a gap in time: Antarctica was not discovered until 1820, 307 years after Piri Reis drew his map, yet the map seems to include it.

  5. Thesis

    Erich von Däniken, Donald Keyhoe and Graham Hancock cited Hapgood's claim as support for ancient astronauts, flying saucers and a lost civilization comparable to Atlantis.

Verified facts

  1. Verified fact

    The Piri Reis map is a world map compiled in 1513 by the Ottoman admiral Piri Reis; about a third of it survives, and its 1929 rediscovery in the Topkapi Palace archives drew international attention.

    • Piri Reis map, Wikipedia
      compiled in 1513 by the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis
    • Piri Reis and the Hapgood Hypotheses, Aramco World (Paul F. Hoye, Paul Lunde), January 1980
      In 1929, scholars working in the archives of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey's Topkapi Palace Museum made an exciting discovery