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Discovering the world around us is an endless journey. From the ocean's deepest trenches to the dense rainforests and ancient ruins hidden beneath layers of soil, there remains much to uncover, even with today's advanced technology like radar, drones, and satellite imagery. It's no wonder people in the past were far more uncertain about distant lands and mythical kingdoms rumored to exist.
This compilation delves into ten mythical places that were once thought to be real.
10. The Realm of Prester John
During the 12th century, Europeans began hearing tales of a Christian monarch in Asia who governed an unnamed kingdom and resisted the growing influence of Islam. Known as Prester John, he was said to be a descendant of one of the Three Wise Men who visited the baby Jesus.
Naturally, European powers saw Prester John as a potential ally, particularly during the era of the first Crusades. However, efforts to locate him or his kingdom were unsuccessful. Around 1165, a letter supposedly from Prester John began circulating across Europe. While it is now recognized as a forgery, the identity of its creator and their motives remain a mystery. The most likely theory is that it was crafted as propaganda to rally support for the Third Crusade.
The legend of Prester John persisted in various forms for nearly 500 years. At one stage, the pope speculated that Genghis Khan might be the figure he knew as Prester John. When this proved false, the supposed location of John’s mythical kingdom shifted from Asia to Africa, possibly Ethiopia.
9. The Island of Demons
Around 1542, a French noblewoman named Marguerite de La Roque reportedly joined an expedition led by her uncle, Jean-Francois de La Roque de Roberval, from France to the New World. During the voyage, she engaged in a romantic relationship with a sailor and became pregnant, an act her uncle deemed disgraceful.
As punishment, Roberval abandoned Marguerite, her lover, and her maid Damienne on an island called the Isle of Demons. Most ships avoided this island, believing it to be haunted by malevolent spirits. Sailors often reported eerie sounds when they approached too closely.
The baby was born but tragically passed away shortly after. Both the lover and the handmaid also died, leaving Marguerite to fend for herself by hunting wild animals. She endured solitary survival on the island for nearly two years before being rescued by a passing ship and returned to France.
The Isle of Demons vanished from maps by the mid-17th century after being charted for over a century. No island exists in the location marked on older maps. However, Marguerite couldn’t have survived on an invisible island for years. Modern theories suggest she was likely stranded on either Quirpon Island or Harrington Harbour, off Canada’s northeastern coast.
8. Bermeja Island
This is another phantom island with a familiar story—believed to be real for centuries, it appeared on numerous 16th and 17th-century maps of the Gulf of Mexico. By the 18th century, cartographers ceased including it, leaving the mystery of whether it vanished or never existed. While most phantom islands are historical curiosities, Mexico continues searching for Bermeja due to its potential financial value.
In 2009, the island’s existence (or absence) became pivotal in oil drilling rights negotiations between Mexico and the United States in the Gulf of Mexico. If real, Bermeja would have significantly expanded Mexico’s territorial zone, encompassing an area estimated to hold around 22.5 billion barrels of oil. With such high stakes, conspiracy theories suggest the United States may have deliberately destroyed the island to secure drilling rights.
7. Lyonesse
Land’s End in Cornwall is currently England’s westernmost mainland point. However, legend suggests this wasn’t always true. A kingdom named Lyonesse once existed on a landmass connecting Land’s End to the present-day Isles of Scilly in the Celtic Sea.
This kingdom was reputed to have 140 churches and a grand cathedral situated where the Seven Stones Reef now lies. Tragically, the people of Lyonesse allegedly committed a grave sin so severe that the entire kingdom was submerged by a flood in one night.
In 2009, the English Heritage charity funded the Lyonesse Project to investigate the myth. Researchers confirmed that the Isles of Scilly were once a single landmass thousands of years ago, though no evidence of a lost kingdom was found.
6. Crocker Land
Crocker Land was an island reportedly located north of Canada’s Ellesmere Island in the early 20th century. Its existence was based solely on the account of Arctic explorer Robert Peary, who claimed to have seen it during a failed 1906 expedition to the North Pole. He named it after his primary financier, George Crocker. Peary may have been deceived by a Fata Morgana mirage, or he might have fabricated the story to secure additional funding.
The existence of Crocker Land had significant implications, as it could determine who first reached the North Pole. In 1909, both Peary and Frederick Cook claimed to have achieved this feat. Cook argued that he visited the supposed location of Crocker Land and found no island, suggesting one of them was lying about both the island and the North Pole.
Cook maintained that he traveled to the alleged site of Crocker Land and found nothing. This implied that one of the two explorers was dishonest, and it was reasonable to assume that whoever lied about the island also lied about reaching the North Pole.
In 1913, an independent expedition was launched to verify the island’s existence. They ultimately disproved it, though Peary was initially believed over Cook. However, over time, it became clear that both explorers were likely untruthful.
5. The Lost City of Z
Could an ancient city lie hidden within the Amazonian jungle? British explorer Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett believed so. Inspired by old documents and accounts from indigenous people, Fawcett was convinced that the ruins of an undiscovered civilization were concealed in Brazil’s Mato Grosso jungles. He named this mythical place the Lost City of Z.
Fawcett’s plans were delayed by World War I, as he served on the Western Front. After the war, he organized an expedition in 1920, but it ended in failure when illness forced him to abandon the search. For the time being, the Lost City of Z remained undiscovered.
In 1925, Fawcett embarked on a second expedition, accompanied by his son Jack and a family friend, Raleigh Rimell. The trio vanished into the jungle and were never seen again. Over the following decades, numerous expeditions attempted to uncover their fate, but the mystery of the explorers and the Lost City of Z endures.
4. Sandy Island
Similar to Crocker Land, Sandy Island’s existence in French territorial waters of the South Pacific was initially accepted due to a credible source—Captain James Cook, who mapped it in 1776 near New Caledonia. A century later, its discovery was confirmed by the whaling ship Velocity. For nearly 150 years, its existence was unquestioned, even appearing on Google Earth.
It wasn’t until 2012 that an Australian research ship definitively confirmed Sandy Island’s non-existence. Strangely, the French had known for decades that the island wasn’t real. They initially labeled it as ED (existence doubtful) and removed it from their hydrographic maps as early as 1974. However, others seemed unaware of this update.
3. Zerzura
In 1843, British Egyptologist John Gardner Wilkinson described a mysterious oasis: “Five or six days west of the Farafreh road lies Zerzura, an oasis roughly the size of Perva, filled with palm trees, springs, and ancient ruins of unknown origin. It was discovered about two decades ago by an Arab searching for a lost camel, who noted footprints of men and sheep, suggesting it was inhabited.” This account ignited the search for the lost oasis of Zerzura.
Unlike many entries on this list, Zerzura’s alleged existence and the quest to find it occurred in modern times. While older references to the oasis existed, Wilkinson’s description inspired explorers to venture deep into the Sahara. The most notable expedition was led in 1929 by László Almásy, the Hungarian aviator who inspired the protagonist in The English Patient.
In 1932, Almásy discovered Wadi Talh, believed to be one of Zerzura’s three valleys. The other two valleys were found by a team led by the Claytons and through aerial exploration by Almásy’s colleagues. Whether these discoveries truly represent the lost city of Zerzura remains uncertain.
2. Paititi
Legend has it that when Spanish conquistadors ransacked the Incan capital of Cusco, they discovered little of the vast treasure the Incas were rumored to possess. The Incas had allegedly moved their immense wealth of gold and silver to the hidden city of Paititi, concealed deep in the jungles east of the Andes. However, after the fall of the Incan Empire, the location of Paititi and its untold riches were lost to history.
Over the centuries, numerous archaeologists, adventurers, and treasure seekers have ventured into the unknown, some even losing their lives, in the quest to find Paititi. The search continues to this day, with one of the most recent expeditions taking place just ten years ago.
1. Thule
Thule stands as one of the most ancient mythical locations, first referenced by the Greeks, much like Atlantis. However, unlike its more famous counterpart, Thule lacks a dramatic tale of divine destruction or flooding. According to Greek and Roman accounts, it was simply the northernmost land known to them, initially described by the explorer Pytheas in the late 4th century BC.
Pytheas embarked on a journey from Marseille, sailing north beyond the British Isles into unexplored regions until he arrived at Thule, a place described as “where the earth, sea, and all elements merge into an impassable barrier, untraversable by land or vessel.” Upon his return, he penned On the Ocean, a groundbreaking travelogue of the ancient world, possibly including precise directions to Thule.
Unfortunately, his work was lost in the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, leaving only fragments of his accounts preserved in other texts.
