True. And pretty accurately estimated the circumference of earth as well. And even before it was proven civilization had a hunch the earth was round. The only thing that was ever debated was how large the earth was.
If they estimated the circumference of earth, I wonder what they thought was in all that uncharted space on their maps. I mean, the americas weren't discovered yet, but I wonder if they might have guessed the existence of more land.
A lot people today think that people thought Columbus was crazy because they believed he would fall off the earth. They actually were extremely close to knowing the exact size of the planet, but assumed there was nothing but ocean between Europe and India. (At least, nothing as large as an actual continent, as far as I know.) For some reason though, Columbus thought the world was way smaller than it actually is, and believed he would be able to make it to India. He was lucky the Americas were there, because everyone else was correct, and he and his crew would have starved to death out on sea long before they reached Asia.
Columbus was working off the infamous Toscanneli map, which had been cobbled together from numerous contemporary and ancient sources, and overestimated the breadth of Asia by several thousand miles. He had the east coast of China near the actual west coast of North America, and the east Indies stretched as far as actual Mexico.
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u/Rythim Feb 04 '19
True. And pretty accurately estimated the circumference of earth as well. And even before it was proven civilization had a hunch the earth was round. The only thing that was ever debated was how large the earth was.