The history of the creation of maps of Antarctica is full of riddles and mysteries. In 1531, French geographer Orons Finet (Orontheus Finius) published a map of the world, which depicted the Antarctic continent. This was long before the “official” discovery of the southern continent. In 1569, the Flemish cartographer Gerard van Kremer (Mercator) included Finius’ map in his Atlas collection of geographical maps. Kremer also created several maps of his own, which also depicted Antarctica.
It is interesting that on Finius’s map Antarctica is depicted in its entirety, the contour of its coastline almost completely coincides with that on modern maps. In the wide coastal strip are marked mountain ranges and valleys, through which rivers flow into the ocean. These highlands and lowlands are shown exactly where contemporary research suggests they are. Mountains and rivers are missing on the map only in the interior of the continent. All of this suggests that at the time of the original maps used by Finius, ice covered only the central part of Antarctica. And such a period ended at least six thousand years ago.
In 1737, French geographer Philippe Boisset published a map of Antarctica, also long before the “official” discovery of the southern continent. When compiling it, he, like Mercator and Finius, used some maps created many centuries ago.
However, all the maps mentioned also contain another mystery. Now Antarctica is almost entirely covered by ice, the greatest thickness of which reaches four kilometers. Almost the entire contour of the coastline of the continent is hidden by floating ice shelves. So the outlines of the actual land of Antarctica, not to mention the relief of its surface, became possible to determine only by methods of seismic exploration, which began in 1949 by a joint Swedish-British Antarctic expedition.
On Reiss’s map, the coast of Queen Maud Land is shown free of ice. Data from modern research confirms that such a period, when the ice did not cover the coastal part of Antarctica, in its history was. Only it lasted from about 13-thousandth to 4-thousandth years BC! Could it be that some of the maps that served as primary sources for Reyes’ compilation were created during this period of time?
There are many theories about how the first maps of Antarctica were created and how the authors of these maps might have known about the contours of the continent’s coastline. One theory is that ancient civilizations had access to technology that allowed them to study Antarctica. For example, there is a theory that ancient Indian texts, such as the Mahabharata, describe an ancient civilization that possessed flying machines and traveled around the world, including Antarctica.
However, most scholars believe that the first maps of Antarctica were created based on the observations of navigators and explorers who traveled around the southern continent. It is also possible that the mapmakers used knowledge of Antarctica’s geography passed down to them from ancient civilizations.
Nevertheless, the mysteries of the maps of Antarctica remain unsolved. The story of the creation of these maps reminds us that our world is full of mysteries and riddles that we can try to solve.
