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In 1494, Piri Reis officially joined the Ottoman Navy as a commander, leading the charge between the Ottoman Empire and Venice. When his uncle died in 1511, Piri returned to Gallipoli and began drawing his maps and books as he began to develop an esteemed reputation for map-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Whole New World<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
His most famous map, the 1513 World Map, and the Book of Navigation remain among the most studied pieces of early maritime navigational techniques. His 1513 World Map wasn\u2019t discovered until 1929 and is known as one of the oldest maps of America that exists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The map, centered on the Sahra, was drawn on a small piece of preserved gazelle skin. Only one-third of the map survived, but was discovered at the Topkap\u0131 Palace in Istanbul, where it is today\u00a0\u2014 though not on public display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Controversy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
While the map was discovered in the 1920s, it wasn\u2019t until later, in 1965, when Charles Hapgood published a paper about the history of Antarctica. Hapgood, a University of New Hampshire professor, studied Piri\u2019s map in his research and included many theories about it in his book, Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n His research found some interesting results that are hard to find modern explanations for. For one, it appears that Piri Reis\u2019 map in 1513 was drawn using a Mercator Projection \u2014 a cartography technique developed by the Flemish geographer in 1563 that is used today as the standard map projection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This method illustrates how Earth\u2019s cylindrical shape impacts the illustration of maps. Since this methodology was undiscovered until the late 16th century, researchers are baffled by Piri\u2019s apparent use of the Mercator Projection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One possible explanation points to Piri\u2019s different source documents that he used to create his own maps. It was known that Piri studied 20 different maps and charts, including Greek, Portuguese, and Arabic, and Christopher Columbus even draws one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With Piri\u2019s in-depth study of these maps, his use of the Mercator Projection is possibly explained by the Greeks, who also used astrological and geological calculations, including latitude and longitude, to draw maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, it continues to be impressive, as this type of spheroid trigonometry wasn\u2019t widely used until the middle of the 18th century. This proved that early map makers not only knew that Earth was round, but they were accurate within 50 miles of its actual circumference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Piri Reis\u2019 maps have baffled scientists and researchers as they look for answers to explain how accurate a cartographer in the 1500s was. And even with a possible explanation for his mapping style, one aspect of Piri\u2019s 1513 World Map remains unsolved \u2014 How did he know to incorporate Antarctica centuries before it was even discovered?<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.historydefined.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Piri-Reis-sml.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAntarctica Uncovered<\/h2>\n\n\n\n