Piri Reis map
The map of Piri Reis is an Ottoman sea chart of the Central Atlantic, the admiral Piri Reis and attributed their origin to the month of Muharram ( March 9 to April 17 ) is dated the year 1513. It is located in Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.
Rediscovery
At the request of then President Mustafa Kemal after an inventory of the Ottoman palace library discovered in 1929 Turkish archivists ancient Greek texts, after which they moved to working in Ephesus Adolf Deißmann to rate. They discovered the Ottoman chart and Deißmann consulted the orientalist Paul Kahle, who happened to be in Istanbul and had recently written a book on the Ottoman seafaring and thus the map identified quickly. The restoration took over Hugo Ibscher.
Content
The map is drawn on parchment made of camel skin, inscribed with Arabic script in the Ottoman language and in one of the inscriptions on the Muharram in the Islamic year 919 ( equal to 1513 of the Christian era ) dated. The book of Piri Reis, from which this map comes from ( Bahriye ) is obtained in two editors from the years 1521 and 1524.
" This card has been drawn from the poor man Piri ben Hadji Mohammed, known as the nephew of Kemal Reis, in the town of Gallipoli ( Gallipoli) - may God have mercy on the two - in the month of Muharram of the year 919 "
It shows in addition to the long-known areas of Western Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa and coastlines of West Africa and North and South America. These shorelines vote in Europe, Africa and South America the same in a number of points with the actual circumstances, but at the same time contain inaccuracies and errors. Striking Country Points ( bays, estuaries, islands ) are - probably as navigation aids - greatly exaggerated. In the upper left part of the map worked into the map fragments can not be clearly assigned to the real land points of the Gulf of Mexico. The lower left part of the map shows prevailing opinion is South America; individual authors but my is to recognize with Antarctica and the northern coast of South America or even South America.
The coast of South America is seen in excessive detail and recognize in the elements of today's card works. In need of explanation but are upstream on the map of the coastal islands, for which there is no counterpart in reality, and the fact that the coastline in the south east will continue.
" Clearly visible in the southern part of the coast of South America is the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, .... "
" Features on the South American coast down to southern Brazil can be Identified with certainty. Beyond that, though, the map is fantasy. It does not match Either South America or Antarctica very well. ( Certain characteristics of the coast of South America down to to southern Brazil can be identified with certainty. Moreover, the map is but pure fantasy. Agrees you neither agree nor really with South America Antarctica. ) "
The islands may be due to errors in terms of location, size or existence of islands. That the Atlantic Ocean through the spherical shape of the earth in the southern area of the surrounding continents closer together moves, may be another aspect that took place here on this card its precipitation.
According to other interpretations of the coast of South America from several cards is pieced together. The coastline of the Cape to Cape Frio Bianca is missing, also missing the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica, but the coast of Antarctica is perfectly reproduced voices and this 300 years before its official discovery. The authors Hertel / Hertel - Klügel assume that Portuguese maps served as a model here. The time not yet specified different projections of different maps led probably to the fact that coastlines were missing, others appeared twice. Piri Reis captured several Portuguese bases on the Arabian Peninsula. In this case, it might have fallen into the hands of the maps, which kept the Portuguese secret otherwise. The actual scope of the then Portuguese geographical knowledge is no longer to determine today. All findings burned when Francis Drake in 1587 and Sagres conquered the castle burned down in the one day the scientific institute of Henry the Navigator was housed, in which all discoveries and maps of the Portuguese were preserved. These treasures of the library were destroyed in the fire.
Emergence of the map
Historical Sources
The question of how Piri Reis has gotten to the information contained in the map, there are various speculations. Piri Reis gives himself to have at least 20 cards used to make the Piri Reis Map. Obviously, this undermined his error, which brought about the inaccuracies. Piri Reis refers to the travels of Christopher Columbus, which led to the Caribbean.
" In the text, which is reproduced in the southern part of South America, about 20 sea and world maps mentioned, among them a map of the western region, which was drawn by Qulünbü ( Columbus ). "
The Caribbean is but played very inaccurate in the map. It is therefore assumed that other sources have been used for the production of that part of the card. There are comments that explicitly say that the knowledge of Portuguese navigator has been included in the map on the map. It is unclear, however, whether this concerns only the eastern or the western Atlantic coast. After all, the coastlines of South America are relatively well resolved, eventually the Portuguese could be attributed. Some suspect this, that the Portuguese crown had long before Columbus has more precise knowledge of these areas, but that would have been guarded as a state secret for the benefit of their own sailors.
" ... To provide the long-lost map of Columbus. From the southern part you had to assume that he goes back to a Portuguese map. "
This hypothesis is supported by the fact that Columbus first sought support in Portugal before he was presented with success in the Spanish crown. Also the fact that Columbus had taken glass beads and other goods on board in order to trade, is used to support this thesis.
Kartometrische studies showed that the accuracy of the Piri Reis Map was significantly worse than that of Juan de la Cosa. Juan de la Cosa accompanied Columbus on several trips to America.
" If we compare the results of this investigation with the accuracy of the map of Juan de la Cosa dating back to 1500 .... so notable differences are apparent. Juan de la Cosa took over as owner of the flagship Santa Maria in 1492 to the discovery of America in part and ordered with respect to the representation of America's obviously better sources. "
Other studies were able to show that the Spanish and Portuguese achieved better results in terms of cartography in the representation of the New World many years ago Piri Reis.
"I would like to summarize my previous remarks briefly: three, namely, related to each other by Piri Reis, Juan de la Cosa and Alberto Cantino, without any seems to be copied from the other of the four discussed cards seem. It is possible that they go back to a common template. "
Limit or para-science
Under the condition that the map was accurate and territories show, some of which were not discovered at the time of their creation by Europeans, Erich von Däniken argues, the artist must, in 've had a template that was created from a great height. These are modern methods of remote sensing, missiles or even satellites have been necessary. The idiosyncratic distortion of the map is caused by the fact that Piri Reis a photo taken from a great height above Cairo, used as a template would. This he cites as evidence for his thesis that the earth had been visited in the early days of aliens (see pre- astronautics ). This theory is not tenable as remain from Cairo at any altitude South America and Antarctica below the horizon. Erich von Däniken shows in the first editions of his book Memories of the Future, a Cairo -centered map of the U.S. Air Force during the Second World War as Piri Reis Map, either as a deliberate reader deception or ignorance of the actual card. The USAAF created the conformal map to navigate the operating from Cairo Air Force, in which the distances are not correct, but the angle ( oblique Mercator projection ).