Basic Information
The Piri Reis map is a world map created by the 16th century Ottoman admiral and cartography Piri Reis, who created his map based on existing older maps. It shows South America and what might be Antarctica, even though the latter continent hadn't been officially discovered yet. Furthermore, the coastline of Antarctica is drawn without the ice cap covering it, even though the last time the relevant part of the coast of Antarctica - Queen Maud Land - was ice-free was six thousand years ago.
Piri Reis mentions in his studies using maps and articles from the Library of Alexandria to produce the map.
This map could potentially mean that there are undocumented civilizations with quite remarkable means of travel and study for the time
In his book Chariots of the Gods?, writer Erich von Däniken cited the map as evidence of extra-terrestrial contact with ancient peoples.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Perhaps Piri Reis somehow got hold of a map deriving from a map of an ancient civilization living on the shores of Antarctica 6000 years ago. Archaeologists might find further artifacts there.
- Perhaps this civilization consisted of survivors of Atlantis.
- Alternatively, it could have been a pre-human civilization, such as Elder Things.
- There is also a chance that various literature and maps could have been rescued from the burning of Alexandria because he had not returned them at the time
- A campaign invovling either extraterrestrial contacts or the search for ancient astronauts can use the Piri Reis map as background information or perhaps even a MacGuffin
- Other sources have suggested that the map might have Chinese origins … they are not quite as heavily disputed as the ancient astronauts theory, but still open to debate.