In his day, Piri Reis was a well-known figure; his historical identity is

firmly established. An admiral in the navy of the Ottoman Turks, he was

involved, often on the winning side, in numerous sea battles around the
mid-sixteenth century. He was, in addition, considered an expert on the
lands of the Mediterranean, and was the author of a famous sailing book,
the Kitabi Bahriye, which provided a comprehensive description of the
coasts, harbours, currents, shallows, landing places, bays and straits of
the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. Despite this illustrious career he fell
foul of his masters and was beheaded in AD 1554 or 1555. 19
The source maps Piri Reis used to draw up his 1513 map were in all
probability lodged originally in the Imperial Library at Constantinople, to
which the admiral is known to have enjoyed privileged access. Those
sources (which may have been transferred or copied from even more
ancient centres of learning) no longer exist, or, at any rate, have not been
found. It was, however, in the library of the old Imperial Palace at
Constantinople that the Piri Reis Map was rediscovered, painted on a
gazelle skin and rolled up on a dusty shelf, as recently as 1929. 20