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North Pole
Fästpunkt 1
On many maps from the 16th century
The North Pole is a black rock surrounded by four islands with rivers in between. The rock is found in several cultures.
ABRAHAM ORTELIUS 1570
FROM THE FIRST MODERN ATLAS "THEATRUM ORBIS TERRARIUM"
AFTER MERCATORS MAP
"The pole itself is made up of four surrounding islands, which myth had it were separated by four strong flowing rivers. These carried the oceans of the world towards a giant whirlpool at the pole where there stood a large rock. An account of this myth in Mercator's own hand still exists". Read more here
GERARDUS MERCATOR 1589
URBANO MONTE 1587
“An important and extraordinary manuscript world map drawn up on a north polar projection to form the largest manuscript map of the world at 9 by 9 feet. This map is one of 3 extant examples (2 manuscript, 1 printed) that form the continuum of Urbano Monte's work on his ultimate world map. "Unique in many ways," says G. Salim Mohammed, the head and curator of the David Rumsey Map Center at Stanford University, which recently added the map to its collection. “No one has really studied this because it's been hidden for centuries.” Only three surviving versions of the map are known to exist. Read more here
On this map, along with all kinds of animals we know today, there are representations of so called "mythical creatures", or rather Biblical, such as dragons and unicorns .
The German Jesuit, the cartographer and professor of Hebrew, mathematics and astronomy, Heinrich Scherer (1628-1704) uses the terms "center of the earth", "pole" and "world pole", as he, like several others, knew that there is only one pole; the North Pole. The "South Pole" or Antarctica is the land mass that surrounds the world's oceans, not an island at the bottom of a globe.
"Magnetic Island" on Olaus Magnus' Carta Marina.
"The hole at the North Pole can be clearly seen". Do they hide the islands or is it really a hole at the North Pole?
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