Maps have always fascinated me, and they can be very helpful to a wanderer. Here’s a little map of the Indian Ocean that shows an island that isn’t shown on most other maps of the region.
New Island's location in the world
The official guidebook to this island, The New Island Wandering Guide, explains at length as to why the island doesn’t appear on most maps of the area. It seems that the old Soviet Union (now Russia) and the American military conspired to have the island removed from all maps in the late 1940’s. They simply requested publishers and lesser governments to delete the island “for national-security purposes” and since nobody really cared that much about this obscure island, they did!
Yet the guidebook is full of detailed and specific maps of the island, including the historical “first map” made by some early settlers, a chart by the Russian explorer Fabian von Bellingshausen and regional and city maps. It’s also full of pictures of places on the island that are traceable on the maps.
So who you gonna believe? Well, probably the atlases, especially if you decide to fly out there in your Cessna! This island is whole-cloth fiction. But many “real” maps tell fictional stories too, such as when someone wants to show their country in a favorable light, or, more commonly, hide something they don’t want you to see…
I just read an article on AOL news about Google Maps, about the places that Google is asked to intentionally obscure. Some govenments don’t allow maps of parts of their territories, and Google has been asked to “obscure” certain air bases, research facilities, and parts of the city of Utrecht! A book I discovered a few years ago called The Power of Maps talks a lot about this mischief with maps.
So New Island might be there after all. Your call!
