10 Old Maps That Got Everything Wrong

Maps have always been tools of exploration, but cartographers didn’t always get them right. Their errors reveal both the limits of knowledge and the creativity of the time. Here are 10 old maps that completely misrepresented the world, yet shaped how people once understood it.

1. 1. The Piri Reis Map (1513)

Drawn by Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis, this map combined knowledge from sailors, explorers, and ancient sources to depict parts of Europe, Africa, and the newly discovered Americas. What truly baffles historians is that the map appears to show the coastline of Antarctica, three hundred years before it was officially discovered.

2. 2. The Vinland Map (15th Century)

For decades, the Vinland Map was considered groundbreaking evidence that Vikings reached North America long before Columbus. The map depicted a mysterious landmass labeled “Vinland,” matching Norse sagas that spoke of fertile western shores.

3. 3. The Hereford Mappa Mundi (c. 1300)

The Hereford Mappa Mundi, the largest surviving medieval map, is more spiritual than scientific. Drawn on a single sheet of calfskin, it places Jerusalem at the center, symbolizing divine order rather than geographic reality. The map teems with creatures, biblical scenes, and legendary lands, from Adam and Eve to monstrous races said to inhabit distant continents.

4. 4. The Cantino Planisphere (1502)

Created for the Duke of Ferrara by an Italian spy who smuggled it out of Portugal, the Cantino Planisphere was one of the first maps to show the Americas. Meant to track Portugal’s global discoveries, it exaggerated the size of South America and misplaced several Caribbean islands.

5. 5. The Ebstorf Map (13th Century)

The Ebstorf Map, once stretching over 12 feet across, portrayed the world as the body of Christ, with his head at the top and feet at the bottom. It combined geography, theology, and mythology into one awe-inspiring image. The map included known continents but also filled them with strange beasts, biblical stories, and symbolic elements that taught moral lessons rather than offering direction.

6. 6. The Zeno Map (1558)

Published in Venice, the Zeno Map depicted a number of nonexistent islands scattered across the North Atlantic, such as Frisland and Estotiland. According to its creators, the Zeno brothers, these islands were discovered during their supposed voyages to the far north.

7. 7. The Da Vinci World Map (c. 1502)

Leonardo da Vinci’s world map was ahead of its time, using a nearly modern oval projection that suggested deep mathematical understanding. However, despite the brilliant geometry, the geography was all wrong; Asia and the Americas were wildly distorted, and coastlines were misplaced or imagined.

8. 8. The Tabula Rogeriana (1154)

Commissioned by Norman King Roger II of Sicily and created by Arab geographer al-Idrisi, the Tabula Rogeriana was one of the most advanced maps of the medieval world. Unusually, it positioned the south at the top and the north at the bottom, following Islamic mapping traditions.

9. 9. The Oronce Fine Map (1531)

In 1531, French scholar Oronce Fine unveiled a magnificent world map that captivated Europe with its beauty and misled it with its errors. The map featured a vast southern landmass, “Terra Australis,” stretching across the bottom of the globe.

10. 10. The Waldseemüller Map (1507)

Often called “America’s birth certificate,” the Waldseemüller Map was the first known document to label the New World as “America,” after explorer Amerigo Vespucci. Its depiction of the continents was filled with guesses; Asia and the Americas were separated by a vast ocean, long before anyone knew the Pacific existed.

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• historical maps
• map mistakes
• ancient cartography
• old world maps
• geography errors