Charles H. Hapgood (1904–1982)

I don't mind admitting that all the references to spherical trigonometry were beyond me (I'm no mathematician and certainly no cartographer), but I don't think that spoiled the book's overall impression. To me, the reasoning of Professor Hapgood and his students is perfectly sound: the maps in question appear to indicate that at some point prior to recorded history, Earth was host to an advanced civilization which mapped the entire planet, including Antarctica when its coastlines were free show more of ice.

The curious fact is not that such maps existed for sixteenth-century cartographers like Piri Reis and Oronteus Finaeus (Oronce Fine, if you're looking him up on Wikipedia) to copy, but that the civilization responsible for them had otherwise vanished without a trace. There is absolutely no indication of who these people might have been, what they called themselves or from which corner of the globe they emerged. Hapgood does not mention Sumer, the earliest known civilization, but notes that the last time Antarctica's coasts were ice-free was about 6,000 years ago; perhaps not so coincidentally, this is when the Sumerian civilization began under circumstances that remain mysterious even today. (It should be pointed out that the Sumerians, though they did sail on reed boats, were not great seafarers. Hapgood firmly believed that the civilization which mapped our planet at such an early date must have been a worldwide civilization...and the Sumerians, advanced as they were in so many respects, do not fit that description. However, their texts explicitly state that they received their culture from the gods themselves. It's possible that the maps were created not by a terrestrial civilization, but by one from another world.) show less

No serious student of history can miss this book. Hapgood (who was laughed at by the established academic community when this book was published -- in part because he used undergraduates to help in his research - academics can be so closed minded and such assholes!) has raised the bar and broken open the box of antiquated archaeological and geographical thinking and has gone to the myths, legends and the extant artifices that contradicts almost everything that has been written about show more "pre-history" up to this point. This is a MAJOR WORK by a gifted teacher who came to his conclusions from legitimately being involved in his subject matter.... I am personally very grateful for this work! It opens doors (and hopefully minds) to a new world of advanced civilizations that appeared (and disappeared) long before out 5000 year old timeline began. show less

Easy to understand hypothesis of pole shifts, the effect of such a pole shift and the resulting evidence. Interesting and definitely provides food for thought.

A powerful book providing reasons why the continents may have shifted relatively suddenly rather than the exceedingly popular slow, steady continental drift hypothesis.