Piri Reis Map

Is there possible Physical Evidence of Atlantis in the Piri Reis Map?

Discovered near Cuba the Piri Reis Map of 1513 is the first surviving map that shows the Americas (the Vinland map may be older but only shows a part of North America).

The Piri Reis map shows North America, South America, Greenland and Antarctica which had not yet been discovered.

Piri Reis was a famous admiral of the Turkish fleet in the sixteenth century. His passion was cartography, he was always on the lookout for new maps and other such documents.

In 1513 a map had been commissioned by him. Piri Reis was high rank within the Turkish navy which allowed him to have a privileged access to the Imperial Library of Constantinople.

He was considered an expert on Mediterranean lands and coastlines, and he even wrote a famous sailing book called Kitabi Bahriye where he described all the details of coastlines, harbors, currents, shallows, bays and straits of the Mediterranean and Aegean seas.

He died in 1554 or 1555 being beheaded for unknown reasons. It is said that in a now-forgotten sea battle he met, among the prisoners, a sailor who claimed to have been sailing along with Columbus in his three journeys to the new world, and that he was one of his pilots. It turned out that Columbus had a map of the lands he was chasing, and that this map now was in the possession of that pilot. The admiral Piri Reis was briefly able to put hands and eyes on the map; then in 1513 he compiled a world map based on that map and on the other antique charts from his collection - many of which had survived from the days of the Great Library of Alexandria.

The map had drawn the attention of scholars in 1929 when it had been discovered in the archives of the Imperial Palace in Constantinople.

The map showed the outline of South America very accurately. This was surprising since Columbus had discovered the New World only 21 years earlier in 1492. Notes made by Piri indicated he had based his map on earlier maps, including one consulted by Columbus before his famous voyage. This excited the scholars since there had been rumors that there existed a pre-Columbian map of the New World.

Piri's claim that he had possessed the "lost map" intrigued historians. It wasn't the accuracy of the South American coastline that interested Mallery, though. It was what was shown at the very bottom of the map: a chunk of land that looked very much like Antarctica. This was surprising since Antarctica had not been discovered until 1820. Even more intriguing was a section of the coastline of this southern continent. Part of it looked very much like the coast of Queen Maud Land which was a section of Antarctica. The strange thing was that the coast of Queen Maud Land had been covered with a thick sheet of ice for many centuries and its shape was only known now to modern mapmakers through the use of modern seismographic equipment.

This made Mallory wonder if the Admiral had somehow owned maps that dated back before the ice sheet covered the coast and if the coast had been somehow surveyed from the air. Most serious professional geographers, though, rejected Mallery's radical theory without even considering it carefully.

Professor Charles H. Hapgood, of Keene State College at the University of New Hampshire, did take an interest in the map and Mallory's thoughts. Professor Hapgood was known for his support of unorthodox theories. With the help of some of his students, Hapgood did a careful examination of Piri's map and several other old maps and published a book on the subject called Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings.

The book suggests that at one time in the ancient past there was a world-wide civilization with advanced technology. Though this civilization was destroyed, some of its knowledge survived to wind up in the maps. Later, an even more radical theory for Piri's map was advanced from writer Eric Von Daniken.

Von Daniken, a supporter of the idea that aliens had visited Earth in the distant past, noted that the map resembled what might be seen from space if you took a picture of Earth from directly over Cairo, Egypt. He suggested that the map was the result of aerial photographs taken from an alien spaceship. Critics of Hapgood and Von Daniken offer a more mundane explanation for the map. They start by pointing out that lots of maps from that era displayed a continent at the bottom of the Earth, though none had yet been found. There was a general belief going back to the time of the Greeks that all the continents must have been connected at one time. This lead to the belief in a southern continent (Interestingly enough, they were correct. The modern theory of plate tectonics supports the idea of single land mass in the very distant past). The critics point out that the land mass shown on the map may have a similar coastline to that of Queen Maud Land, but the similarity is not unmistakable. What is on Piri's map, they argue, is just a lucky attempt to display an unknown, but suspected land.

The similarity, say critics, is just coincidence. They also point out that the map shows South America and Antarctica connected, which they have not been for many millions of years. Also information about weather conditions and animal life in Antarctica as found on the map is completely wrong. Other experts speculate that though the first recorded sighting of land in the Antarctica was in 1820, there may have been earlier unreported voyages to the southern reaches. Though this might not explain the coastline of Queen Maud Land on the Piri map, it might be the reason that there was such a strong belief in the existence of a southern continent. - Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings An ancient map that King Henry owned in 1500 A.D. clearly shows Atlantis. Greek documents and maps showing Atlantis that Christopher Columbus studied before he set sail for America, including the 1482 Benincasa Map showing 3 Atlantis islands that no longer exist! Explorers View 'Lost City' Ruins Under Caribbean December 6, 2001 - Reuters Explorers using a miniature submarine to probe the sea floor off the coast of Cuba said on Thursday they had confirmed the discovery of stone structures deep below the ocean surface that may have been built by an unknown human civilization thousands of years ago. Researchers with a Canadian exploration company said they filmed over the summer ruins of a possible submerged ``lost city'' off the Guanahacabibes Peninsula on the Caribbean island's western tip. The researchers cautioned that they did not fully understand the nature of their find and planned to return in January for further analysis, the expedition leader said on Thursday.

The explorers said they believed the mysterious structures, discovered at the astounding depth of around 2,100 feet and laid out like an urban area, could have been built at least 6,000 years ago. That would be about 1,500 years earlier than the great Giza pyramids of Egypt. ``It's a really wonderful structure which looks like it could have been a large urban center,'' said Soviet-born Canadian ocean engineer Paulina Zelitsky, from British Columbia-based Advanced Digital Communications (ADC). Zelitsky said the structures may have been built by unknown people when the current sea-floor actually was above the surface. She said volcanic activity may explain how the site ended up at great depths below the Caribbean Sea. In July 2000, ADC researchers using sophisticated side-scan sonar equipment identified a large underwater plateau with clear images of symmetrically organized stone structures that looked like an urban development partly covered by sand. From above, the shapes resembled pyramids, roads and buildings, they said. This past July, ADC researchers, along with the firm's Cuban partner and experts from the Cuban Academy of Sciences, returned to the site in their ship ``Ulises.'' They said they sent a miniature, unmanned submarine called a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) down to film parts of the 7.7-square-mile area.

Those images confirmed the presence of huge, smooth, cut granite-like blocks in perpendicular and circular formations, some in pyramid shapes, the researchers said. Most of the blocks, measuring between about 6.5 and 16 feet in length, were exposed, some stacked one on another, the researchers said. Others were covered in sediment and the fine, white sand that characterizes the area, the researchers said. The intriguing discovery provided evidence that Cuba at one time was joined to mainland Latin America via a strip of land from the Yucatan Peninsula, the researchers said. ``There are many new hypotheses about land movement and colonialization, and what we are seeing here should provide very interesting new information,'' Zelitsky said. ADC's deep-water equipment includes a satellite-integrated ocean bottom positioning system, high-precision side-scan double-frequency sonar, and the ROV. The company currently is commissioning what it calls the world's first custom-designed ocean excavator for marine archeology to begin work both at the Guanahacabibes site and at ship wrecks. ADC is the deepest operator among four foreign firms working in joint venture with President Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s government to explore Cuban waters containing hundreds of treasure-laden ships from the colonial era. The Canadian company already has discovered several historic sunken Spanish ships. In an earlier high-profile find, ADC was testing equipment in late 2000 off Havana Bay when it spotted the century-old wreck of the American battleship USS Maine.

The ship had not been located since it blew up mysteriously in 1898, killing 260 American sailors and igniting the Spanish-American War. The rush of interest in Cuba's seas in recent years is due in part to the Castro government's recognition that it does not have the money or technology to carry out systematic exploration by itself, although it does have excellent divers. Metaphysical Article By Ellie Earth's Shrinking Magnetic Field Scott Stones- Are They Real? Three Experiences The ruins of temples dated at 12,000 years old have been found near Bimini, Bahamas. Megalithic structures are not supposed to be in the Bahamas. Preliminary analysis has revealed that the original structures, although smaller in size than the Great Pyramid of Giza, appear to have been more advanced. Casing stones have been measured which are of the same unique angle as those at the Great Pyramid. The ruins are megalithic and bear a remarkable resemblance to ancient sites in Egypt. So called "quarry marks" found in the Aswan quarries and also on the Great Pyramid, itself, appear to be identical matches with those found on the Bimini temple stones. One major difference, however, between the Egyptian sites and these stones is that on The Bimini stones you find a great number of sky maps which have recorded the paths of various heavenly bodies. The major concern of the mysterious ancient civilization that produced these heavenly maps seems to have been Saturn and Jupiter - with the oldest records reflecting an emphasis in Saturn. Some of the stones are under water and some of them are under the sand under water.

They are not in their original formation. It appears that the most important or revered numbers associated with these ruins were the numbers five and nine. These numbers were also of great significance to the ancients of Egypt and Meso-America. Evidence indicates that a "checkerboard" calculator system was being used. Examples of this system were found on top of the Great Pyramid and were long used for numerical calculations in Meso-America. This same checkerboard pattern shows up on the lintel stones of temples built by Celts of Iberian origin. Also, according to some astronomers, this pattern served as a calendar regulator to measure the sunrise and sunset directions on solstices and equinoxes. Other characteristics closely match features at megalithic sites in Peru, the Yucatan, Ireland and Scandinavia. Analysis of these enigmatic ancient temples built near Bimini over 12,000 years ago has only just begun. Although many maps of the heavenly realm adorn various walls of these mysterious Bimini temples, there is an almost complete lack of other markings. Of the limited glyphs that do exist, however, several match those found in the famous Altamira Cave in Spain (known as the Sistine Chapel of pre-history) which contains the well-known bison painting. In addition, there are exact orbital plots of the planets and what seem to have been intricate star shafts, metal-coated walls, and intermingled stones of various colors. One of the unique features of the ancient temple ruins, built near Bimini by an unknown advanced civilization which apparently was thriving while most of the rest of the world was plodding through the Stone Ages, is that these stones may be far more likely to yield an accurate account of their true age than most of the famous megalithic sites around the world.

There are also instances in which lava has flowed in between some of the temple stones which may give scientists an approximate date when submitted to testing. The antiquity of the stones almost leaps out at you upon first glance. There are hollows which have been left in certain broken stones which have undergone such an extensive amount of crystal growth upon their inner surfaces that they now look like the inside of a geode! In many cases, the cement that once held the huge stones together is now completely crystallized. Some of the massive granite blocks, themselves, now exhibit significant portions, which have metamorphosed over the ages to the point where they are no longer even granite. But perhaps, most significant of all is the fact that organic matter has been found within a hermetic seal; along with unrusted, worked iron. The iron began to rust soon after the seal was opened, however, which would indicate that the seat had prevented the entry of oxygen for thousands of years. The organic matter was in pristine condition and should prove to be an interesting target for dating procedures. Other hermetic seals, which have yet to be opened, are know to exist as well. Edgar Cayce predicted that just this sort of thing would be discovered. These findings not only match Cayce's predictions but Plato's writings There are exact orbital plots of the planets and what seem to have been intricate star shafts, metal-coated walls, and intermingled stones of various colors (including red, white and black). - Miami Museum of Science Experiences of Andrew Collins and the Scott Stones During a full-length interview on Atlantis and its association with the Great Bahama Bank produced by Douglas Kenyon and Thomas Miller during the late 1970s, Wingate reported how between the years 1925 and 1928 the US Army Core of Engineers hired a Miami salvage company to collect large quantities of stone ballast for the construction of various sea walls and jetties in the Miami area, including those examples at Jupiter Inlet, north of West Palm Beach, and at South Beach and Fisher Island, east of downtown Miami.

In this last case two miles of sea-walls of loose stone end in parallel jetties that reach out like arms into the open sea for a distance of around 400 yards. According to Wingate, all these jetties and sea-walls contained large stone blocks, mostly hard granite, basalt and coral, dredged from a shallow water location named Moselle Shoals (formerly Moselle Reef), which lay some 30 miles north of Bimini. More significantly, he claimed that many of these blocks were not only regular in shape, with right angles and smooth surfaces, but that they also bore evidence of circular bore holes which regularly penetrated their entire width, depth or length for anything up to twelve feet. Strangest of all was his claim that some granite blocks possessed five-sided bore-holes which appeared to turn as they passed through the solid rock, rather like the barrelling of a rifle. Wingate argued that these stone blocks were among those removed from Moselle Shoals, and even managed to find and interview on camera an ageing seaman who could recall the several barge-loads of rock being transported from the Great Bahama Bank to Miami and Jupiter Inlet. This now elderly gentleman also recalled that one of the barges got into trouble and finally sank to the bottom where it remains to this day. Video footage and photographic stills were shown of the sea-walls and jetties in question, while there was close ups of the stone blocks containing either circular or five-sided bore-holes. Clearly, if Wingate was correct in his surmise, then it strongly suggested that an advanced culture with a highly sophisticated technological capability may well have been responsible for the construction of the stone structures found on the Great Bahama Bank.

This would have been strong evidence in support of Cayce's prophecy suggesting that the remains of Atlantis, in particular part of the temple of Poseidia, would be discovered off the coast of Bimini. Was it possible that Duval's Scott Stones were none other than the cut and machined blocks previously recorded both at Juniper Inlet and South Beach, Miami, by Richard Wingate during the late 1970s? Firstly, Duval linked his alleged discoveries with Egypt's highly advanced stone-ware technology, in particular the stone cutting techniques evident in the granite quarries at Aswan. This, of course, brought to mind the circular and five-sided bore-holes referred to by Wingate. There was also the fact that Duval had mentioned stones in three colours - black, red and white - bringing to mind the basalt, granite and coral found among the jetty stones. In our opinion, however, the clincher was when we heard Wingate say on the TV documentary that attached to some of the jetty stones was a form of `Atlantean glue', or mortar - exactly what Duval claimed to have discovered attached to the remains of his `temples'. Since Wingate obviously believed that these stones were fragments of an Atlantean temple once located at Moselle Shoals, it was understandable why Duval should have come to the same conclusions about the Scott Stones. Yet if these assumptions were correct, and Duval had simply rediscovered the stones placed among the sea-walls and jetties at Miami's South Beach (near his home in North Beach), then why had he not credited Wingate for these discoveries? Did he not know of his work, or had he deliberately chosen to ignore Wingate's findings? More importantly, were the bored stones spoken of by Wingate really of great antiquity? The elderly seaman from the salvage company involved with removing the ballast from Moselle Shoals had also pointed out that the rest of the stones used to construct the sea-walls and jetties had come from stone quarries in North Carolina and Maine.

How could Wingate, and presumably Duval as well, tell such stones apart? How could they know whether a stone block was either from the sea-bed or a mainland quarry? It was a troubling thought, and one which needed to be addressed one way or another. In order to settle the matter, I decided to return to Miami, arriving there on Thursday, 5 March 1998. The following day I took a taxi ride to Jupiter Inlet and after much tramping around I found the sea-walls in question. They lay either side of the narrow inlet and extended out as jetties into the open sea. In the time permitting I was only able to inspect the stones on the southern side, which consisted mainly of large pieces of white granite and coral fragments, the latter coming from a location just off-shore. Some of the granite possessed lines of shallow bore-holes along their edges, which were clearly done to fracture the stone, while only one piece of granite bore a distinctive circular borehole. It was around four inches in diameter and penetrated through its entire depth for a distance of some four feet. Unfortunately, all the granite stones were unquestionably quarry off-cuts brought in fairly recently to extend the existing sea-wall. This I know as I was able to speak to workmen actually working on the reconstruction of the sea-wall during my visit. Whether the stones in the sea-wall and jetty on the opposite side of the inlet contained more ancient stones removed from Moselle Shoals remains to be seen. Enigmatically, one work-man - looking like an extra from The Village People - did say that he was unaware of the composition of many of them, saying only that they were `as hard as Hades', whatever that was supposed to mean. He was unable to elaborate any further. Slightly disappointed I returned to Miami and the next day made my way out to the sea-wall and jetty located at the most southerly point of South Beach. Of the thousands of loose granite blocks examined many hundreds of them bore evidence of circular drill holes of varying sizes and depths.

These generally took the form of short incisions in rows, clearly done to fracture, weaken and finally break the rock away from the bedrock. Other holes pierced right through the length, width or breadth of individual blocks, just as Wingate had described. More significantly I found two good examples of five-sided holes, yet I quickly realised that these had been made by a powerful circular drill that had simply jolted off-centre as it had penetrated through the rock, leaving a geometrical, five-sided impression. More telling was the fact that all around one of these five-sided holes were lines of perfectly circular holes that matched the diameter of the curve that formed each of the five sides of the hole, meaning that they had been made by the same drill. Elsewhere I even found a hole with three beautifully curved sides, caused by the same drilling defect. There were literally thousands of huge stone blocks, many several tonnes a piece, that bore clear evidence of sophisticated drilling operations, and yet not one of them showed any sign of having lain in shallow waters for many thousands of years. The ballast was clean and free of ages of slime and coral, meaning that the vast majority of the stones making up these sea-walls and jetties were, like those at Jupiter Inlet, quarry off-cuts and not the remains of Atlantean temples. Even if the five-sided bore-holes found by myself were not those featured in Wingate's TV documentary from the 1970s, it is simply too much to imagine that the ancient Atlanteans were able to bore five-sided holes in solid rock in the same manner as modern-day quarry drills.

In addition to all this, I came across granite blocks stained with iron oxide, caused it would seem either by poles having once been placed inside the circular holes or, in case, the remains of what appeared to be a highly rusted drill bit still stuck in position. I also found traces of modern concrete attached to some of the stones, making me recall the `Atlantean glue' referred to both by Duval and Wingate - I suppose you can mistake one for the other. Removing the significance of the Miami and Jupiter jetty stones from the equation leaves little significance in the knowledge that vast quantities of rock was removed from Moselle Shoals to build sea-walls and jetties in different parts of Florida in the 1920s. It also destroys Wingate's claims to have found granite and basaltic masonry from the temples of Atlantis. How this affects Duval's claims to have found Atlantean temples off the Bimini coast is up to the reader to decide. The publishers who offered him an enormous advance for exclusive rights to a book that would prove once and for all the existence of Atlantis are still hoping that Duval might have something to offer them. Even if Duval's claims do come to nothing, it is our opinion that major discoveries are to be made in the shallow waters of the Great Bahama Bank.

After his death in 1994, it was found that J. Manson Valentine had left a detailed catalogue of no less than sixty-five proposed archaeological sites, all of them in the vicinity of Bimini and the Bahaman islands in general. Furthermore, Bill Donato and his specialist diving team have recently discovered cut and dressed granite blocks in the vicinity of Moselle Shoals that simply cannot be put down to either dumped ballast from colonial vessels or local beach rock. There is also the Bimini Road itself which, despite claims to the contrary, remains totally unexplained. Should these sites prove to be as ancient as many now believe, then it is clear that Egypt's Sphinx-building Elder culture may not have been alone, and that it was simply one small piece of a much larger jigsaw on a global scale.