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The famous warning “Here
Be Dragons” is a map myth:
It was never actually writ-
ten on old maps, though a
Latin version appears on
one 16th-century globe.
Instead, the phrase rep-
resents the illustrations of
monstrous sea serpents,
toothy beasts, and strange
peoples that frequently
adorned medieval and
Renaissance maps.
In most cases, map
monsters were simple dec-
oration, strategically filling
in the empty parts of the
map. (Cartographers are
known to abhor a blank
space.) But often, these
imaginary beasts were
seen as very real threats,
born out of inflated trav-elers’ tales and infused
with religious myth and
folklore. They were often
drawn lurking in uncharted
waters, where they sig-
naled the dangers that lie
beyond the known world.
On some medieval
world maps, the inhabi-
tants of distant lands are
depicted as strange myth-
ical peoples. You’ll find the
headless “blemmyes” with
faces in their chests, the
desert “sciapods” with a
single giant foot to shield
the sun, and the “antipode-
ans” who live on the other
side of the world (the Aus-
tralian continent from the
Europeans’ perspective)
and whose feet point in the
opposite direction.Where Be
Dragons?◀ Drawn
by Muslim
cartographer
Muhammad
al-Idrisi, this map
of North Africa
and Eurasia
places south,
the direction of
Mecca, at the top.