Antarctica is one place that the human race has not yet been able to explore. It is one of the least known parts of our world, among others such as the bottom of the ocean, our solar system, and of course the rest of the universe. Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth (its temperature can reach -90°C) and it is the last discovered continent (1820.) It is controlled by only a few countries, and it is governed by the Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1959 by 12 countries forbidding military use while supporting scientific research and advocating protection of the ecosystem. Antarctica is not yet habitable and only about a thousand scientists are working there. If we take a look at the history of this continent, we will see some mysterious facts.
During antiquity the Greeks guessed the existence of Antarctica. They called it “Terra Australis”. Its actual discovery can be attributed to a people even earlier than the Greeks. Indeed, some maps showing Antarctica were discovered by a Turkish admiral around 1500 A.D; he then drew a map (known as Piri Reis map which is named after him,) using these older maps which dated from the Egyptian period (-2000 B.C.) It depicts Antarctica as a big Southern continent which has forests inhabited by large animals and humans. Furthermore, when we look a the details of this map, we can see that the real coast line is drawn, not the ice coast line. It wasn’t until 1980 that the real cost line was calculated by modern science! It should be added that nowadays, it is known that Antarctica had forests in the past. It is true that a lot of coal has been found under the ice (despite the fact that in certain regions of Antarctica, principally in the center, the ice can have a depth of more than 4500 meters which makes it impossible to find out what’s underneath). Might it have been a hot continent during some time in the past?
It is actually possible: do you know the ice age? It is a time period when Europe was under ice. It is possible that during this time Antarctica was hot. Maybe it was habitable and there was a civilization growing there… maybe Atlantis? In fact during the second World War, Germany and the United Kingdom fought over Antarctica even though this hasn’t been written down in school history books. What were they fighting about? It couldn’t have been for a whole bunch of penguins. There were so many places to defend and fight for, so why Antarctica? Did Great Britain find something or did Hitler know some facts? We will probably find some interesting mysteries in the future about this unknown continent unless it remains hidden from the public eye.