SC - Chinese Explorers

[snowfire at mail.snet.net]

- -Poster: Jean Holtom <Snowfire at mail.snet.net>

>I agree there are puzzling similarities, and suggest that they are
>puzzling because there have been no connections reliably made between
>the two of which I am aware.  

Agreed.

>The idea that a few Egyptian architects jumped in a boat and went off to 
teach the Americans how to build pyramids has, IMHO, just too much going 
against it.  Mind you, I am a proponent of the idea that ANYTHING is 
possible, but also aware that many things are highly unlikely, this being one 
of them.

Well the jist of the original post and my answer to it were both a bit 
"tongue in the cheek", m'lord (if Chaucer can do it, so can I!).   
 
>Secondly, navigation at the time just does not
>support this type of voyage.  Reliable determination of both latitude
>and longitude is a relatively modern invention.  Latitude, the east-west
>lines ringing the planet that include the equator, is easily determined
>by looking at your position relative to the stars, but longitude, the
>north-south lines, requires a reliable and extremely accurate timepiece
>to determine.  We in the modern era are so used to being able to jump in
>a mode of transport and go from point a to point b that I think some of
>us forget that such mobility is very very modern.

Given your position on the ancients' inability to navigate north to south 
without modern equipment then, M'lord, I would be quite interested in what a 
seafaring person as yourself would think of the "Piri Reis" map.  (Which 
apparently is authentic).

Elysant 
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