cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9283125

The Isle of Demons appeared on maps of the New World for more than a century. But by the mid-1600s, cartographers made an important discovery: There was no Isle of Demons. It had never existed at all. Like the evil spirits that ran rampant over its rocky landscape, the island was a phantom.

Phantom islands have appeared on maps since the earliest cartographers surveyed their surroundings. They are geographical “belief features,” says Edward Brooke-Hitching, author of The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps, places that explorers, cartographers, and mariners were certain existed until time or technology proved otherwise.

“Sometimes these islands lived short lives before the error was corrected by vessels on confirmation missions, sometimes they lived their quiet lives of non-existence for centuries,” he says. Some even remained on maps into the 21st century.