The True Source of Ancient World Maps
Maps of places all over the world began appearing as early as the 1300s. The maps included portions of North and South America, Central America, Antarctica, and Asia. Historians familiar with the maps have suggested luck, an unsolved mystery, and even space aliens as the sources for them. However, there is a logical explanation that begins with an account of history recorded in the Bible. There is every indication that a worldwide flood actually occurred about 4000 years ago, destroying the entire population of the earth except for Noah and his family.
The pre-Flood peoples were highly intelligent and lived extraordinarily long lives. After almost 2000 years, they were bound to have developed a great deal of scientific knowledge and many advanced technologies. Think about how rapidly flight technology went from the first airplane in 1903 to the first manned rocket to the moon in 1969. There were people still in their sixties who watched Armstrong and Aldrin on TV as they walked on the moon, who could also remember the first time they saw an airplane.
It is likely that the Flood survivors and their families recovered a portion of the scientific and technological knowledge developed by the pre-Flood civilizations. The earliest post-Flood people groups appeared suddenly and at about the same time period in world history. They built huge pyramids, ships, and other structures that required complex engineering skills. They also had amazing knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, and geometry, which allowed them to survey and map areas with a high degree of accuracy.
The Phoenicians were one of the earliest groups. They were especially skilled as sailors and were able to navigate long distances on seaworthy ships. They also possessed the skills needed to accurately survey and map the places to which they traveled in search of treasures and useful resources. Apparently they took numerous ocean voyages during the Ice Age, a period of about 500 to 800 years following the Flood. They seemed to have surveyed, mapped, and explored much the earth during this time.
During the Flood the ocean waters were exposed to hot magma as a result of volcanic activity and huge cracks in the earth’s ocean floor. For a period of time after the Flood, the ocean waters were extremely warm, even in the Polar Regions. Massive amounts of water evaporated from the warm oceans into the atmosphere, formed clouds, and produced an unusually large amount of snow and rain. During the Ice Age, huge ice packs gradually accumulated. At the same time, the sea levels became lower and exposed thousands of square miles of dry land on the Continental Shelf. Clusters of islands today may be all that is left of once large peninsulas of land mass.
Eventually, the oceans became cooler, snowfall decreased, and seasonal changes were re-established. Sea levels gradually rose again as the huge ice packs began to melt. The original Phoenician maps showed the earth as it existed during some part of the Ice Age. Land bridges, peninsulas, and islands no longer in existence were drawn during the height of the Ice Age. (See the blog “Explaining the Ice Age” for a more thorough explanation.)
The Phoenicians became incredibly rich and influential as they traveled by ships to various places and discovered metals, mineral ores, and other natural resources. They carefully guarded their maps and their navigational tools and methods from their enemies. It is likely that superstitious warnings about ships falling off the edge of the earth and giant monsters at sea were spread by the Phoenicians to frighten enemy competitors.
For hundreds of year, the Phoenician city of Tyre was one of the most prominent cities in the world. It was located on the eastern Mediterranean shore with part of the city on a virtually impregnable island seaport. Alexander the Great became obsessed in trying to conquer Tyre and spent months planning and undertaking an assault on the city. Tyre finally fell to Alexander’s armies in 332 BC. Their precious maps were taken to Alexander’s library in Alexandria, Egypt, where they remained for hundreds of more years until a series of enemy attacks and fires destroyed much of the library.
Some of the maps were apparently taken from the library and kept for even more years by unknown people in Constantinople and in other places. Eventually Turkish mapmakers and admirals discovered them and began to piece them together to make larger maps. It is not clear how much these admirals trusted their maps to accurately guide their ships to places across the oceans. It’s also not clear whether or not Columbus had seen or heard of these maps as he made plans to sail across the Atlantic Ocean toward India.
However, Turkish admirals and other mapmakers almost surely possessed copies of these world map well before Columbus and other European explorers began to travel across the earth’s major oceans. The maps of Peri Reis and others are traceable to ancient Phoenician mapmakers, who possessed the skills to accurately survey and map their locations. But instead of passing information from one generation to another and progressively advancing their knowledge, their skills and areas of expertise were guarded and maintained in secret by elite groups of priests and rulers.
Over the years, their skills and knowledge were corrupted or lost. Astronomy degenerated into astrology and pagan religions, and science became riddled with superstitions.
Today’s textbooks continue to teach that natives who lived in North American, Central America, and South American first made their way across a narrow land bridge from Siberia by walking or on the backs of animals. The idea that they arrived by ships 3000 to 4000 years ago just doesn’t fit with the official account of the history of mankind that begins with ignorant cave men. Is the official version of world history in need of updating?
Information for this article came from The Genius of Ancient Man, Don Landis, editor, New Leaf Publishing Group, 2012 and from Ice Age Civilizations, James I. Nienhuis, Genius Veracity, 2006. The image with this article is from The Genius of Ancient Man.