PIRI REIS AND HIS MAPS

Abstract

A Turkish seafarer, pirate and admiral, Piri Reis, while sailing the Mediterranean and other nearby seas, sketched the seashores, made detailed notes about his journeys and collected maps. Based on his own notes as well as Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic maps, he made many maps, the most famous of which were the two maps of the World. They were discovered when the Topkapi Saray palace was turned into museum. Unfortunately, neither one was found complete. From the first one we have only the western part; both Americas, with the Greenland on the north and the Azores in the center. On the opposite side are the costs of Africa and the Pyrenean. His most famous work is Kitab-i Bahriye (The book on sailing, instructions for seafarers) contains over 200 sea maps with detailed description of the Mediterranean, the countries, cities, costs and islands in various regions. Additionally, there are instructions for sailing the seas, astronomical and meteorological data, geographical discoveries of the Spanish and the Portuguese, thus making it an exceptional sailing handbook. The Croatian coast and islands, with cities and ports were drawn exceptionally well, a proof he personally sailed the Adriatic. It is considered to be one of the best maps of the middle ages, and also the first original map of the North America. Therefore, this brave admiral made a great contribution to the development of geography of the Mediterranean, the nearby seas and the Americas.