Who is Piri Reis

   PİRİ REİS ( 1465 - 1554 )

     Piri Reis was an Ottoman Kaptan-i Derya, geographer and cartographer born between 1465 and 1470 and died in 1554 or 1555. He is primarily known today for his maps and charts collected in his Kitab-i Bahriye (Book of Navigation), a book which contains detailed information on navigation as well as very accurate for its time charts describing the important ports and cities of the Mediterranean Sea.He gained fame as a cartographer when a small part of his first world map (prepared in 1513) was discovered in 1929 at Topkapõ Palace in Istanbul. His world map is the oldest known Turkish atlas showing the New World, and one of the oldest maps of America still in existence in the world. (The oldest known map of America that is still in existence is the map drawn by Juan de la Cosa in 1500, which is conserved in the Naval Museum (Museo Naval) of Madrid, Spain.) Piri Reis´ map is centered in Sahara at the Tropic of Cancer latitude .

Several warships and submarines of the Turkish Navy have been named after Piri Reis.