Misplaced islands have lengthy haunted the goals of sailors. For hundreds of years, tales of those vanished lands had been exchanged in hushed tones, even inside esteemed scientific circles.
On historic nautical maps, we discover a multitude of islands now not charted: Antilia, St. Brendan, Hy-Brasil, Frisland, and the enigmatic Island of Seven Cities. Every holds a charming story.
Legend tells of seven Catholic bishops, led by the Archbishop of Oporto, fleeing the Moorish conquest of Spain and Portugal in AD 711. Refusing to undergo their conquerors, they led a gaggle westward on a fleet of ships. The story goes that after a deadly journey, they landed on a vibrant, expansive island the place they constructed seven cities, without end marking their new dwelling.
From its very discovery, the Island of Seven Cities has been shrouded in thriller. Subsequent centuries noticed many dismiss it as a mere phantom. But, within the twelfth century, the famend Arab geographer Idrisi included an island named Bahelia on his maps, boasting seven grand cities throughout the Atlantic.
Nonetheless, Bahelia too vanished from sight, remaining unmentioned till the 14th and Fifteenth centuries. It was then that Italian and Spanish maps depicted a brand new Atlantic island – the Antilles. This iteration held seven cities with peculiar names like Azai and Ari. In 1474, King Alfonso V of Portugal even commissioned Captain F. Teles to discover and declare “Seven Cities and different islands within the Atlantic, north of Guinea!”
The attract of the Seven Cities in these years is simple. Flemish sailor Ferdinand Dulmus petitioned the Portuguese king for permission to say the island in 1486, ought to he discover it. Equally, the Spanish ambassador to England, Pedro Ahal, reported in 1498 that Bristol sailors had launched a number of failed expeditions in quest of the elusive Seven Cities and Frisland.
A perplexing connection arose between the Island of Seven Cities and Antillia. European geographers firmly believed within the existence of Antillia. Martin Behaim’s famed 1492 globe positioned it prominently within the Atlantic, even claiming a Spanish ship had safely reached its shores in 1414!
Antillia continued to seem on maps all through the Fifteenth century. Notably, in a 1480 letter to King Alfonso V, Christopher Columbus himself talked about it with the phrases “the island of Antillia, which can also be recognized to you”. The king even recommends Antillia to him “as a superb place the place he’ll cease on his voyage and land on the coast”.
Although Columbus by no means set foot on Antillia, the phantom island lent its title to the newly found territories by him – the Higher and Lesser Antilles. The Island of Seven Cities, a beacon of thriller for hundreds of years, continues to ignite our imaginations, it’s a remnant of the enduring energy of human curiosity and the attract of the unknown.