A detailed full-color map drawn on a gazelle skin in 1513 by Turkish admiral Piri Reis represents a plane circular projection of a spherical cap of the Earth as it could be seen by an astronaut from a high altitude above Egypt. (Retired space scientist Maurice Chatelain estimates the projection to be centered upon the intersection of the meridian of Alexandria at 30 degrees east and the Tropic of Cancer at 23.5 degrees north.)

The map, possibly derived from several older, even prehistoric, maps from the torched Alexandria Library collection, correctly depicts an ice-free Antarctic continent. (The Piri Reis map, lost until its 1931 discovery in Istanbul’s Topkapi palace, is supposed by some to be remnants of an advanced civilization’s cartographic surveys, has been studied extensively by such researches as Charles Hapsgood, author of the now-classic Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings.)

The map shows several now-vanished features of prehistoric Europe and Africa.

A large lake in the center of Spain feeds the Tagus and Guadalquivir Rivers; a large lake in the Moroccan Sahara feeds the Sebou River; a very large lake in Mali feeds such wide rivers as the Gambia, Senegal, and Niger.

A large inland lake is shown in Brittany, whose western tip is an island.

The map also indicates such northern islands as Svalbard (now situated less than 10 degrees from the Pole and virtually inaccessible until the advent of twentieth century maritime technology).