Map Myths
@mapmyths
Map Myths delves into the stories and people behind the phantom geography found on maps - by @rhewlif.xyz Myth map 👉 Long reads 👉
It would not be until 1798-99 when Matthew Flinders and George Bass sailed through Bass Strait that Tasmania was definitively determined to be an island. In 1856, Van Diemen's Land was renamed Tasmania in honour of the first European to visit the island. mapmyths.com/van-diemen's...
When more of the Australian coastline became charted, particularly following Captain Cook's visit to the east coast in 1770, cartographers became increasingly confident that Van Diemen's Land was connected to its larger neighbour.
When Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) was discovered in 1642 by Abel Tasman, it appeared on contemporary maps as an isolated coastline. Its insular nature would not be confirmed for another 150 years.
The Finnish architect Georg Schreck managed to build the lighthouse on the highest point of the island; it just so happened to be on the Swedish side. Yet, the lighthouse was never considered Swedish, nor administered from Sweden.
A lighthouse built on the Baltic island of Märket ended up redrawing an international border. In 1885, when Finland was part of the Russian Empire, a much-needed lighthouse was planned - the treacherous island had contributed to the sinking of eight ships in 1873 alone.
Look closely at Swisstopo maps, and you might find a hidden easter egg. www.swisstopo.admin.ch/en/hidden-im...
The legend of Prester John goes back to the mid-12th century, and tells of a Christian king of enormous wealth and power. His kingdom was initially thought to lie in Asia. The idea that it could lie in Africa emerged once Europeans began to learn about the real Christian kingdom of Ethiopia.
The Royal Cartographer to France created a rare mistake in 1780 by mapping 'Alaschka' as an island. The name derives from the Aleut language, meaning 'the mainland'. This early attempt at rendering the Aleutian Islands came just after Cook's voyage to the Pacific Northwest returned in 1779.
The myth of the Mountains of the Moon features prominently as a source for the 'Egypt Nile', but also the 'Sudan Nile', flowing to the Atlantic. The latter is likely a conflation of great rivers such as the Niger, at the southern edge of the Mediterranean's 'known world'.
Muhammad Al-Idrisi's world map from 1154 is one of the most advanced of its time, drawn for the Norman king of Sicily, Roger II. To ensure its accuracy, 15 years were spent examining existing maps and interviewing travellers. Note that south is at the top of the map.
Poor positioning of the original sighting meant this island would survive in duplicate on some maps (along with Honden Eylandt or Puka Puka) well into the 20th century.
Dutch explorers Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten also landed at Puka-Puka on April 10, 1616, naming it 'Honden Eylandt' (Dog Island) on account of seeing three dogs along the coast. This was also the voyage that proved a route around Cape Horn was viable, thus avoiding the Strait of Magellan.
Together with Tiburones they were named Islas Infortunadas (Unfortunate Islands in Spanish) on account of them not having any water or fresh food. Only trees, birds, and sharks. The date of discovery is near the festival of when Paul the Apostle is traditionally said to have become a Christian.
During the first circumnavigation of the world, Ferdinand Magellan came across only two islands during their traverse of the Pacific Ocean. One found on 24th January 1521 was named San Pablo, probably the Puka-Puka atoll in the north-eastern Tuamotu Archipelago.
Its picture nicely demonstrates why many phantom islands once filled charts of the Southern Ocean, like Dougherty, Nimrod, Emerald, Pagoda Rock, and more. All of which have since melted away. 📖 mapmyths.com/dougherty-is...
Although it was realised during the 17th century that the Paraguay River did not connect with the Amazon basin, Lago de los Xarayes would appear on some maps even into the 19th century. 📖 mapmyths.com/lago-de-los-...
Relevant Spanish explorations of the Paraguay River (in search of gold) included Sebastian Cabot in the 1520s and later by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1543, who at the time was the Spanish governor of Río de la Plata, based in Asunción.
The lake's name later became commonly associated with the Xarayes (the indigenous people who lived in the region and roughly translated to 'masters of the river') following the 1601 publication of Antonio de Herrera's chronicles of Spanish conquests in the New World.
Early explorations of the Paraguay River and the discovery of the vast Pantanal floodplain soon led to the embellishment of a vast inland sea. Initially, it went by the name of Eupana on Portuguese and other European maps.
He named the mountains after the First Secretary of the Admiralty, and with no further investigation or consultation with his crew he turned the ship around, despite the many protestations of his officers.
Despite heavy sea-ice in 1818, John Ross managed to reach Lancaster Sound in the far northwest of Baffin Bay. After several miles of sailing between Devon Island and Baffin Island, Ross looked out and saw a mountain range blocking any possible progress westwards.
The mis-sighting of the Croker Mountains represents probably one of the most significant mistakes made in the race to find a Northwest Passage during the 19th century.
Map myths in the wild...Mercator's Septentrionalium Terrarum descriptio spotted on an advertisement at University of Tromsø campus
Satirical stories of Fonseca started appearing in the late 17th century. One 1708 letter described it as a moral and social hellhole, where "such a mixture of pestilential nastiness, folly, pride and extortion" had never been seen before.
Not long after, in 1633, John Pym and his company of investors were on the verge of sending Puritan colonists there from England, believing it to be more fertile than their current colony on Providencia. But at the last minute, they chose to pursue trade relations with tribes in S. America instead.
This phantom first appears in 1537, east of Barbados and Tobago, with the moniker Biciosas (vicious). Others renamed it San Bernardo, including Cabot (1544) and Mercator (1569), before its final form of Fonseca (dry source) arrived on Hondius' double hemisphere world map c.1595.
📣 NEW BLOG POST: From Puritan paradise to debaucherous hellhole. Once hailed as a royal gift ripe for the taking, the island of Fonseca eventually became synonymous with debauchery and the worst of 'colonial vices'.
Captain JK Davis, sailing aboard a different Nimrod, measured a depth of 1140 fathoms (2,080 m) nearby in 1909 without reaching bottom, after the British Antarctic Expedition led by Shackleton. Eilbeck had likely sighted icebergs, but the islands were not removed from Admiralty charts until 1935.