Ancient travelers jealously guarded knowledge of open their lands, creating instead of guides real puzzles.
Photos from open sources
Turin map
This oldest of all geographic maps is kept in Turkey. It was compiled in 1160 BC. for expedition members to gold mines in the Wadi Hammamat area of Egypt. By order of the customer – Pharaoh Ramses IV – are detailed on the map signs by which you can find this largest field, however, the map itself is divided into several fragments, disputes about the correct layout of which does not cease from the moment of detection artifact. 
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Babylonian world map
Clay tablet from Mesopotamia from the end of the VIII – beginning of the VII century to AD depicting a map of the world known to the Babylonians. Interesting, that along with real objects on the map are outlines “antediluvian” world, mentioned in the epic about Gilgamesh. Find out though would approximate where the ancient Sumerians had mythological objects from this epic are today almost impossible. 
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Roger Book
Atlas, compiled in 1154 by the Arab geographer al-Idrisi commissioned by the Sicilian king Roger II. In the comments to the map al-Idrisi described in detail all the evidence of Muslim travelers about the Country of Russ. According to this document, our ancestors there were three great city-states, of which today only Kiev (Kukiyana) can be confidently identified. Disputes about the locations of other cities – Ars and Salav – are still since
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“Picture of the world”
Map of the Southern Land, compiled according to the treatise of Honorius Augustodunsky, who in the XII century described the Earth of antipodes, where lived “bald people”, “people with dog heads”, giants, dragons and other monsters. This description later became the basis for the whole cycle of fantastic mythical journeys the country of “elder John” who allegedly preached Christian faith antipodes.
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Map of Mao Kun
Map of the great Chinese navigator Zheng He (Mao Kun is his name in the European tradition), compiled from 1401 to 1433. On this map of the Minsk era, 499 geographical names are indicated, from which are identified by no more than two-thirds. Most disputes among historians call the names of settlements on the shore African continent – according to Zheng He, while East Africa there was a developed civilization in place which arrived several decades later the Portuguese sailors expeditions under the command of Vasco da Gama found only miserable villages.
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Peitinger table
A parchment copy of an ancient Roman map created in XIII century by a certain monk from Colmar in Alsace (got its name from named after one of the owners – Konrad Peitinger, a German scientist XVI century). The map shows Roman roads, 555 Roman cities and 3,500 attractions (e.g. lighthouses, holy places and etc.). The cities on the territory of modern France and Germany, destroyed or abandoned after the V century. Location these cities is still a debatable issue.
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Vinland Map
America allegedly made in the 15th century depicts America – in the form of the large island of Vinland west of Greenland, where they lived Vikings. The map was found by Yale scientists back in The nineteenth century, but until the 60s of the twentieth, its existence was not advertised. Only after it became known about the opening of the Viking settlement on the shores of Newfoundland, she was put on display and decided analyze ink and parchment. Disputes about the authenticity of the card do not subside to this day.
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Map de Caveri
Map of the world from the Genoese cartographer Nicolo de Caveri created about 1505 year. The most mysterious thing about this card is that it contains a detailed description of the coast of North America from Florida to Delaware and Hudson, although history claims that Europeans do not set foot on this coast until 1512 or 1513, until it arrived Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon. The only possible the explanation is that some unknown sailors sailed along this coast and put outlines on maps.
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Piri Reis Map
Map compiled in 1528 by the Ottoman admiral and navigator Haji Muhiddin Piri ibn Haji Mehmed, who striking accuracy depicts the coast of Africa, South America and even Antarctica. How did the Turkish admiral know how it looked a continent “officially” discovered only three centuries later, is unknown.
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Mercator Map
World map compiled in 1538 by a Flemish cartographer Gerhard Mercator (however, a number of scientists doubt the authenticity of this surname: translated from Latin mercator – just a merchant). On the on this map, he drew the outlines of the mysterious northern mainland Hyperborea. The location of the southern mainland was also indicated, whose existence was confirmed only in 1819 by the Russians sailors Feddey Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev, who considered the discoverers of Antarctica. Material prepared Vladimir Tikhomirov
Antarctica Turkey
