Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
 Although I give 4 star, It is a must read!!! September 22, 2008
There are many theories about the ancient civilizations. If we look back to the human history, somehow we always cross the boundaries of official science. The biggest problem is the lack of solid evidences. Prof. Hapgood finds his evidence in old maps. In his book he analyze maps with scientific methodology, and gets some really interesting results. Focusing mainly to the map of Piri Reis, he extracts data out of an old map, and presents the results as an "accurate map" of the American coastline long before it was explored by the Europeans. I read this book twice and I carefully studied the chapters of map making and writing, and I think that Prof. Hapgood and his students made a great job. Are the results convincing? For me, not really, there's a point, when a coastline of the Antarctic is extracted from the map. It needs to much assumptions to be true. The same is true with the map of Oronteus Finaeus map.
Besides, ther are some really interesting points, e.g.: a very good explanation of why Colombus estimated shorter distance between Europe and America, and some REALLY EXACT midieval maps of the medeterranium.
This book is well above most of the books of "ancient history, lost civilizations, etc" category, because it is based on facts and calculations, you can check if you want. This could be a 5 star book, but I feel, that some of the conclusions are forced.
 Great works... January 12, 2008
Great stuff in this book.
Talks of an ancient civilization that certainly knew what was going on...
Great start in finding out the truth about the world before we came around!!!
Mathe Ancient Sea Kings December 18, 2007
Maps was a refreshing perspective on a topic which is very much under-researched for whatever reasons.
Amazing thesis October 27, 2007
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
What Hapgood is suggesting is almost beyond belief. Yet, he presents his well-argued case with clear documentation. I just don't see how anyone with an open mind could dismiss his argument without serious consideration.
The problem is, the ramifications of what he is saying are staggering. If what Hapgood suggests is true, we will have to rewrite the history of mankind.
I'd have given it 5 stars if the writing were better. Many will find it dry, but it is well worth the read.
Dusted Excellence on the Uncovering of the Ancient Superior Cartography Knowledge October 25, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is about medieval and some Rennaissance maps which are very unusual: They show continents not yet (re-)discovered. Isles now submerged. The coastal areas of Antarctica and Greenland entirely free of ice. A remarkable precision completely out of place for the Imes (times). Based on cartographical systems utterly unknown back then - and obviously completely not overstood by the copyists of ancient maps. Ancient maps which are based on source maps which were ancient in the Imes what we today consider as ancient.
When I first browsed through the ads for other books in this book's back I dreaded what I got myself into. From Atlantis to UFOs you will find anything no hard evidence will be found of currently. Personally, I do not DISbelief any of that either, I just dread to read wild speculation. Because that usually turns out to be utter non-sense later. Yet, occasionally sparking the search for more knowledge. Which IS important then, after all. This shows perfectly with this book. Most of it is very 1960s state of the art scientific fact based. No wonder, as the author worked on this subject for seven years (1959-1966) - as a professor with his students and the help of the US air force map division. After the presentation of the facts on the various maps, he adds a concluding chapter - with a lot of speculation. The theories therein were valid at the Imes. Reproduced is a foreword by no less than Albert Einstein for an earlier book by the author, which theory gets new attention in this follow up book. The specifics of the main theory of earth crust shifting (as in one peace moving in one direction) due to the heavy ice caps at the poles causing centrifugal displacements sound extremely hilarious today. Yet, at the Imes, ANY continental shifting sounded hilarious, and today we know that the continents move around indeed. Just not the way, the author once suspected.
Which leads me to the subtraction of a star for major dust having accumulated on this book, without getting updated with a preface or reworked altogether. This book is historic already. It has been written at Imes, humans were just starting to get pictures of earth from space, but hadn't been on the moon yet. It was published eight years before the invention of Arno Peters' superior projection of the world. When the ice ages were still pure mysteries. When the age of humans of some 195,000 years wasn't known. And when historic legends such as the supposed burning of the Alexandria library by Muslim conquerors was still believed in, i.e. hadn't been exposed as the medieval European Christian propaganda it was. (In reality, it was first Julius Caesar, then fanatic Christians who successively burned that (once rebuild) world treasure, the last Imes some seven centuries before the Muslims arrived.)
All which in a way makes a point for that which the author is writing: That some superior knowledge may get forgotten/never known by (mainstream) humanity while in other areas common progress is made. He's referring to the lost source maps. I am referring to his book. His speculation about the earth has been dealt with and progressed on. His very scientific facts about the maps he has conducted has not entered general human consciousness. After the first edition, his book remained unpublished for some 20 years, till a publisher had to reprint it, whose usual readership is satisfied with less strict scientific standards. After reading the other reviews here, I may add that the paperback of 1996 indeed is in black and white. That may have contributed to the very bad reproduction of SOME of the maps, contributing to the subtraction of a star. Most are clearly recognisable, but with individual ones I felt insulted with the presentation. Luckily, some are schematized on the following pages.
I am very thankful that the author unravelled the SEEMING imprecision of some old maps, which only have to get looked at within the correct cartographic system to become virtually perfect. Just not for easy long distance navigation, something e.g. Columbus didn't realize. (The same as the Peters Projection isn't the best choice for navigation.) By the way, it is known in the meanwhile that Columbus knew not only of ancient maps, but also of previous African travels to the Americas. That's why he chose his sea route starting from West Africa to catch the best current. For more on that read e.g. They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America by Ivan Van Sertima and in a way also The Lost Treasure of King Juba: The Evidence of Africans in America before Columbus. The latter suggests an additional reason for the loss of the source maps: A fleeing African King's court taking the maps with it upon Roman invasion, making sure this way that the Romans wouldn't be able to follow.
Other seemingly hilarious elements on the maps are explained as making sense - when the original source maps get considered, not the knowledge lacking later copyists -, such as mythical beasts presented in some territories.
If anybody knows a more recent source about these maps, please leave a comment. For example I am amazed that it doesn't strike anybody, such as the author as odd that some land masses are free of ice, yet on other maps the sea level is DROPPED or equal to today. There are some "odd" climactic conditions making this half way possible, yet I would like to clearly know about the specific scenario at hand. (Or wether this ancient map making knowledge is supposed to have existed THIS long that it covered different fundamentally changed world climates.) And about other confirming or challenging information which has accumulated by now. Such as a bathymetric comparison of the Aegean Sea proving wether the once depicted additional islands are really there, i.e. submerged. One confirming fact I DO know is that residues of American cocaine and Australian eucalyptus have been found in Egyptian mummies, as the Western edge of Australia is presented on one of the maps as well. It has also been found out that the Egyptian culture is much older than presented in 20th century orthodox egyptology, so the question of who might have come up with the now lost source maps isn't really such a mystery anymore (and is not restricted to the admirers of "Atlantis"), especially considering that the maps were obviously centered on Egypt.
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