A short story on the mysterious 'double-life' of Giles Land - a phantom island that persisted on maps of the Arctic well into the 20th century. How did the island manage to fool mappers and explorers for so long? 🧵 - ThreadSky

myths.rhewlif.xyz • 95 days ago

A short story on the mysterious 'double-life' of Giles Land - a phantom island that persisted on maps of the Arctic well into the 20th century.

How did the island manage to fool mappers and explorers for so long? 🧵

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myths.rhewlif.xyz•95 days ago

In 1707, and under fortuitous sea-ice conditions east of Svalbard ~80°N, the Dutch whaler Cornelis Giles sighted land, and proudly named the discovery after himself.

This 'Giles Land' is known today as Kvitøya (“white island” in Norwegian).

myths.rhewlif.xyz•95 days ago

The sighting was promptly included on contemporary maps, albeit tentatively, such as on this chart of Spitsbergen by van Keulen from 1715 (see the right margin).

myths.rhewlif.xyz•95 days ago

However, heavy pack ice in this region meant the discovery went unconfirmed over the next few centuries.

'Giles Land' thus evolved into an enigmatic legend amongst cartographers and polar explorers. The land became associated with other new and imagined discoveries east of Spitsbergen.

myths.rhewlif.xyz•95 days ago

For example, during Nordenskiöld's expedition to Svalbard in 1863-64, he claimed to have sighted Giles Land farther south.

But in reality, Nordenskiöld had spotted Svenskøya - the westernmost island of the Kong Karls island group.

myths.rhewlif.xyz•95 days ago

In one extreme variation, on Baur's world map of 1870 Giles Land was plotted with a size almost comparable to Spitsbergen itself, albeit with a tentative question mark.

myths.rhewlif.xyz•95 days ago

The transition of Giles Land into mythical status solidified in 1872 when the famous German cartographer, August Petermann, published a map with its location now much farther north at 81°30’N (top-right corner in the map below).

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