Oronce Finé (also known as Oronteus Finaeus) was a renowned French mathematician and cartographer who lived between 1494 and 1555. He is famous for his map of 1531, which was discovered in the Library of Congress in Washington DC in 1960 by Professor Charles H. Hapgood.

Although this map has been copied from earlier sources, what's interesting about it is that it shows non-glacial conditions of the costal regions of Antarctica, notably Queen Maud Land, Enderby Land, Wilkes Land, Victoria Land (the east coast of Ross Sea), and Marie Byrd Land.

The continent of Antarctica was discovered in 1818, and in 1949 the actual landmass was mapped as a result of a comprehensive seismic survey conducted by a joint British-Swedish scientific reconnaissance team. According to geological evidence, Queen Maud Land was last ice-free in 4000 BC. There is no civilization known to orthodox history that had the capability of surveying the Antarctic coastline in 4000 BC.

Charles Hapgood and his team converted this map from its original projection method into a modern projection method. See the results below.

This first image is simply the map as it was drawn by Oronteus Finaeus.

Next they converted it to a modern projection method as shown below.

Compare the first two images with a modern map of Antarctica to see just how close they were.

Regardless of some of the theories as to how such a map could exist, the Oronteus Finaeus Map remains a mystery.

For a larger illustration of the Oronteus Finaeus Map, please click here .