Rediscovering what was already found

For 400 years the Topkapi Palace had been the Ottoman Empire’s sultan main residence. In 1929, the Turks decided to transform the palace into a museum, bringing to light artefacts hidden in the dark chambers and cellars. Then was discovered a map drawn in 1513 by the admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. The map showed the western side of Europe, the western side of Africa, South America and surprisingly the Antarctica. Reis had drawn with precision the way the borders of Africa and South America fitted together before they were separated in time and also Antarctica – a frozen land first seen (as we all thought) in 1820 by Mikhail Lazarev and Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen.

 This map became more mysterious because Reis had drawn also a reference to Columbus, reminding of an ancient map that Columbus had used during his expeditions on sea. Columbus map became an “El Dorado” for treasure hunters, bu no one has yet found it.