1575 world map by François de Belfort

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

An extremely curious map dated 1575 and drawn by a certain Frenchman named Francois De Belleforest. Click on the map to open it in full resolution, look at cities and towns and read the inscriptions. There are many interesting things on the map.

Here is what Dmitry Mylnikov writes about this card:

What is interesting on this map is that the largest or most important cities are depicted and labeled. Moreover, many cities are depicted in Africa. We can also observe rivers there that do not exist on today's map.

While working on a series of articles about Tartaria, I looked through many old cards, and they all have one feature. On them, the authors may completely incorrectly depict the shape and position of rivers, lakes and seas, islands and continents, but at the same time, the topology of objects is almost always correctly depicted, that is, their interconnections. There are practically no mistakes in which river the main cities are on, which river flows into which other river, lake or sea, which seas with which other seas or oceans are connected by straits. This is explained quite simply. They did not know how to accurately measure distances and fix the shape of objects, but where are the straits through which you can sail to certain countries, or which rivers you need to sail to get to this or that city, it was very well known from many travelers and merchants.

In addition, a similar configuration of rivers in North Africa, where the Sahara Desert should actually be, is observed on other maps up to the first half of the 18th century. And only after this moment at this point they begin to designate "Grand Desert Sahara", that is, the great Sahara desert. It turns out that in the middle of the 16th century there was no Sahara in Africa yet?

It is also interesting that if the names of cities in Europe, the Middle East, India and northern Africa correspond more or less to what we know, then in Siberia or in the territory of present-day China there is nothing even close! Moreover, there are surprisingly many cities in Siberia, including those clearly beyond the Arctic Circle: Taingim, Naiman, Turfon, Coβin, Calami, Obea. Do these names tell you anything?

With the territory of modern China, it is also not clear what. Most of the city names are clearly not Chinese. And where has gone to Beijing (Běijīng) ?! But it is believed that Beijing is believed to be the largest city in the world in the periods from 1425 to 1650 and from 1710 to 1825. But we see on the map in this place many cities, but not the largest city on the planet. Or the Chinese have not yet been resettled to our Earth and this happened after 1575?

During the discussion of this map, it was suggested that the author could not draw non-existent cities "to make it beautiful." But if you look at the same North America, the author will not invent anything there. There are no cities, so we don't depict anything. And in Europe, he did not come up with anything. Although, there are oddities there. It is very interesting which cities for the author seemed significant in Europe and on the territory of Russia. In Europe, marked: Lisbona (Lisbon), Sevilla, Lion, Brest, Paris, Ausburg, Wien, Danzic, Cracow, Buda, Ragura (?), Bergen, plus Constantinople is clearly not clearly marked. But a little to the right and below it we see Troy (Troia) !!! That is, in the second half of the 16th century, its location was not only well known, but the city itself still existed. And the official version of the story claims that Troy disappeared before our era. By the way, where is Rome? Or was there not enough space on the Iberian Peninsula for a badge and an inscription?

Moscow, Vyshegrad, Novgorod, Solovki (!!!), and a certain S. Nicolas - Saint Nicholas (?) Are designated on the territory of Russia.

Frankly speaking, not a lot. Or is it designated only the administrative centers of the territories? If so, then what is the population density in North Africa and Siberia, if there are so many administrative centers?

It is also interesting which European states, according to the author, were worthy of being displayed on the map: England, Spain, Gaul, Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia, Sweden and Norway. Yes, it’s not a lot. Tartary, by the way, is marked, although the border is shown in such a way that almost all of the lower and middle regions fall there. And the total area that the author attributed to Tartary is relatively small.

It is interesting that, according to the author of the map, who is allegedly French, France itself is called Gaul, as in the days of the Roman Empire. But Rome is absent. Well, okay, with everything else, for example, the author could have lied, but what is his country called, which, according to the official myth, by the time of the reign of Louis XI (1461-1483), actually did away with feudal fragmentation and turned into an absolute monarchy, he should have known? At the same time, it cannot be said that this map was made by a complete ignoramus, since many things are displayed and indicated completely correctly. And it seems to me that this Frenchman (or Gallican?) Can be trusted more than the official historical myth. And if so, then in 1575 the catastrophe that led to the formation of the Sahara Desert has not yet occurred. There are still cities and rivers that disappeared after the disaster.

Klikobeino