Piri Reis (Captain Piri) was a famous Otooman sailor and scientist. He lived from 1470 to 1554. He was born in Dardennelles (Gelibolu, Çanakkale). He wrote many books about geography, cartography and seamanship. His uncle Kemal Reis (Captain Kemal) was a great sailor and Piri Reis grew up with him. He travelled all along the Mediterrenean with his uncle. He drew maps of Mediterrenean, North Africa and Southern Europe during his voyages. Most of Mediterrenean Sea at that time was Ottoman territory. In fact, Piri Reis lived at the time of Kanuni Sultan Süleyman, one of the greatest sultans of the world.
The most interesting thing about Piri Reis is the map he drew of the American continent. We have got two copies of this map. One of them is from 1513 and the other one is from 1528. The first map shows the distance between American continent, Europan and African continents, exactly the same as it is today. But at that time it was impossible to see these distances from the sky. The American continent was just discovered. So how did Piri Reis draw this map?




His second map included North, Central and South America. This map is also very accurate. Piri Reis wrote places names and showed some rivers on his maps. This is very interesting because he never went to America. Also, there is no other map as old and accurate as Piri Reis's map.


By Hümeyra Karayel