I was at a used bookseller the other day while waiting for a bus and picked up the book 1421 -- you may have known about it, but I didn't, for I was simply drawn in by some of the old maps in the book and, at $6, I can't say no to old world cartography. :: laugh :: Apparently the author claims that the Chinese admiral 鄭和, Zheng He. traveled further ( Read more... )

Hey, I just thought this was cool.The link above is to a zoomable portion of the Kūnyú Quántú, 坤輿全圖 , a Chinese map produced in the 1600s. I just adore these things, and this combines my love of old maps and languages. Here not only do we get to see the concept of the world as it was known in the 1600's, but with known (and possibly imaginary!) ( Read more... )