Piri Reis

Who was Piri Reis?

Piri Reis was an Ottoman admiral, geographer, and cartographer born between 1465 and 1470. He died in 1553.

He is primarily known today for his maps and charts collected in his Kitab-ı Bahriye, a book that contains detailed information on navigation, as well as very accurate charts describing the important ports and cities of the Mediterranean Sea. He gained fame as a cartographer when a small part of his first world map was discovered in 1929 at the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. His world map is the oldest known Turkish atlas showing the New World, and one of the oldest maps of America still in existence anywhere. Piri Reis' map is centered on the Sahara at the latitude of the Tropic of Cancer.

In 1528, Piri Reis drew a second world map, of which a small fragment still survives. According to his imprinting text, he had drawn his maps using about 20 foreign charts and mappae mundi including one by Christopher Columbus.