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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · 6d

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · 11d

Follow the link below to uncover more about this iconic bestiary of the North Atlantic.

Fear and loathing for sea monsters

Within the collective imagination of the sixteenth century, enormous man-eating monsters commanded the oceans. Nowhere is this mashup of science and folklore de

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · 11d

For Olaus and his contemporaries, the sea was not an empty void but a living, dangerous, and mysterious domain. The Age of Discovery was just beginning, and many of the animals depicted were considered to be real, albeit poorly understood, creatures.

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · 11d

📣 NEW BLOG POST

In the sixteenth century, enormous man-eating monsters ruled the oceans. Nowhere else are these fear-inducing creatures better depicted than on the 1539 "Carta Marina" by Olaus Magnus.

Map: Carta marina et descriptio septemtrionalium terrarum (“Marine Map and Description of the Northern Islands”) (Olaus Magnus, 1539). Source: University of Minnesota’s James Ford Bell Library.

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · 12d

While en route to the North Pole on a modern ice-going vessel, glaciologist Henry Patton reveals some of the crazy mapping mistakes and theories of what people used to believe lay hidden in this icy kingdom.

📽️ Editing by @media.elizaveta.no

Secrets of the North Pole unravelled

YouTube video by Map Myths

youtube.com

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · 17d

The micronation of Rino Island, founded in 2009, supposedly claims sovereignty over Podesta Island to this day, along with other phantom islands of the South Pacific.

Declaracion de Soberania sobre la Isla Podesta, la Roca Emily

Micronación sudamericana establecida en 2009, formada por una serie de islas del Océano Pacífico y un Territorio de Ultramar.

rinoislandgov.blogspot.com

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · 17d

The US Hydrographic Office list of 1891 had already marked Podesta Island as 'probably non-existent' after several ships had failed to find it again.

Yet the island still persisted on charts through the 20th century, and remarkably still remains on Google Maps with a not too undecent rating of 3.8.

Map: Südpol (Adolf Stieler, 1944). Source: David Rumsey

Google reviews of the phantom island of Podesta

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · 17d

Like a flat-earth conspiracy theory, Podesta is one phantom island that has refused to die, and has even recently been 'annexed'.

Discovered by the aptly named Captain Pinocchio* in 1879 off the coast of Chile, it was supposedly 1 km in circumference.

*Finocchio, according to some sources

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · 28d

The last appearance of Emerald Island on a map was in a 1987 desk calendar published by American Express.

📖 mapmyths.com#emerald-island

Map Myths

An interactive map delving into the tales behind the cartographic myths, blunders and imaginations that shaped our view of the world during past centuries.

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · 28d

A further search for the island in 1909 by Shackleton's Nimrod, and Amundsen in 1910, also turned up nothing, suggesting the original sighting was likely a mistaken iceberg.

The abyssal plain on the ocean floor beneath the location of this phantom island is now named Emerald Basin.

Emerald Basin on the ocean seafloor south of New Zealand. Source: GEBCO Gazeteer

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · 28d

Lt Wilkes of the US Exploring Expedition of 1838-42 later attempted to use Emerald Island as a rendezvous point for his fleet during its approach to Antarctica, without success.

The USS Vincennes at Disappointment Bay in early 1840. Source: Wikimedia

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · 28d

The 'semblance' of an island, thirty miles long with high peaked mountains, was sighted by C.J. Nockells of the British sealing ship Emerald, in December 1821.

Map: Oceania, or Islands in the Pacific Ocean (A. Fullarton & Co, 1872). Source: David Rumsey Map Collection

Map: The World, on Mercators Projection (John Arrowsmith, 1844). Source: David Rumsey Map Collection.

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · Sep 1

Was it really a mythological land though? In 1948, a 45 km-wide point of land at coordinates of 46°23′N 37°20′W was found submerged only 36.5 m below the ocean surface. Significantly, this location due west of Brittany tallies with the earliest map drawings.

📖 mapmyths.com#mayda

Map: Tablua Terre Nove (Martin Waldseemüller, 1513). Source: Stanford University

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · Sep 1

Despite its popularity with cartographers for over five centuries, no accounts exist of anyone having visited its shores.

Some have speculated Mayda could have been a very early depiction of Corvo in the Azores, or even the crescent-shaped lands of Bermuda, Cape Cod or Cape Breton in the Americas.

Map: Carte D'Amerique (Guillaume de L'Isle, 1722). Source: Stanford University

Map: Universale descrittione di tutta la terra conosciuta fin qui (Fernando Bertelli, 1565). Source: Library of Congress

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · Sep 1

Mayda, with its many pseudonyms, is one of the most enduring phantom islands of the North Atlantic, though its origin is largely unknown.

Its signature crescent shape first appears in 1367 with the label Brazir, with the more common name of Mayda appearing only later in 1553.

Map: The Pizigani portolan chart of 1367. Source: Wikimedia

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · Aug 23

Thanks for sharing - that's quite an amazing and fortunate discovery. Unfortunately the Nomans Island runestone is now underwater, so hopefully it can be retrieved one day for further examination.

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · Aug 23

When the 'Vinland Map' was announced to the world in 1965, it turned the known history of transatlantic exploration on its head.

Was the depiction of a landmass southwest of Greenland, clearly labelled "Vinlanda Insula", proof of Viking expansion into the New World centuries before Columbus?

The map that rewrote history…or so we thought

When the discovery of the Vinland Map was announced to the world in 1965, it was presented as a genuine 15th-century mappa mundi , a world map that contained a

mapmyths.com

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · Aug 17

Charting mistakes along this coastline were likely due to the abundance of shallow coral reefs here preventing access to deep ocean-going vessels.

The duplication of the major island of Bahrain as Samak (translated to fish) can be traced to an early alternative name that was used for this island.

Modern map of Persian Gulf, with the Qatari peninsula

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · Aug 17

Although the peninsula had been included on some maps from two centuries earlier, this particular error (perpetuated mostly on French maps) appears to have stemmed from an influential chart of the Persian Gulf prepared by Jean Baptiste Nicolas Denis d'Apres de Mannevillette in 1745.

Plan Particulier du Golfe de Perse depuis le Caps de Rosalgatte et de Jasque, jusqu'à Bassora. (Jean Baptiste Nicolas Denis d'Apres de Mannevillette, 1745)

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · Aug 17

Parts of the Persian Gulf were still a mystery to western geographers during the 18th century, particularly along its western shore.

The most egregious mistakes included the absence of the Qatar Peninsula, seemingly replaced by Samak Island.

📖 mapmyths.com#samak

A New Map of Arabia: Divided into Its Several Regions and Districts. (Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, 1794). Source: LOC

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · Aug 13

While fleeing Macau on charges of illegal trading in 1589, João da Gama sighted land northeast of Japan.

His reports were initially added to early Portuguese maps as a series of small islands, but later, 'Gamaland' ballooned in size across the North Pacific.

📖 mapmyths.com#de-gama's-land

Map: Atlas of João Teixeira Albernaz I, 1643. Source: Wikipedia

Map: Totius Americae Septentrionalis et Meridionalis novissima repraesentatio quam ex singulis recentium geographorum tabulis collecta luci publicae accommodavit (Johann Baptist Homann, 1707). Source: LOC

Map: L'Asie (Guillaume de L'Isle, 1739). Source: BNP

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · Aug 5

Denia and Marseveen first appeared on charts from Joannes van Keulen in 1680, supposedly sighted by Dutch Company ships.

In all likelihood, this pair of islands is probably an early sighting and duplication of Marion and Prince Edward islands, around 1,500 km to the east.

📖 mapmyths.com#marseveen

Map: Wassende Graade Kaart Van alle bekende Zeekusten op den geheelen Aardbodem (Joannes van Keulen, 1680). Source: David Rumsey Map Collection

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · Jul 22

The South Shetland Islands, the first discovery south of 60°S, were quickly exploited by sealers in the 1820s. Troubled with fog and ice, the charts they produced for the British Admiralty were of varying accuracy.

One phantom that slipped through was Huson's/Middle Island.

Map: 1822 chart of the South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands (George Powell, 1822). Source: Wikimedia

Map: Patagonia, S. Shetlands, S. Orkneys (Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1838). Source: David Rumsey

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · Jul 17

Two large rivers drain either side from the base of the peninsula: Yalu to the west and Tumen to the east. Early explorers who failed to fully navigate these rivers probably assumed they formed a continuous strait.

📖 mapmyths.com#korea

Map: Exacta & Accurata Delineatio cum Orarum Maritimarum tum etjam locorum terrestrium quae in Regionibus China (Jan Huygen Van Linschoten, 1596). Source: Stanford University

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Map Myths @mapmyths.com · Jul 17

The first map of Japan in a European atlas appeared in 1595 and curiously also included a carrot-shaped island off the coast of China: 'Corea insula'.

Little was known of the Far East during the 16th century, so Korea's insular nature was largely speculative.

Map: Iaponiae insulae descriptio (Abraham Ortelius, 1595). Source: Yale University

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