New exhibition in Topkapi Palace Museum marks year of Piri Reis

Istanbul's Topkapı Palace Museum is home to a new exhibition, featuring a variety of maps and books on geography dating back to the Ottoman period, until May 20.Titled "Piri Reis'ten Once ve Sonra: Topkapı Sarayı'nda Haritalar" (Before and After Piri Reis: Maps in Topkapı Palace), the exhibition went on display on April 24 at the museum's Has Ahırlar Exhibit Hall.The show is a part of a series of cultural events organized for the Year of Piri Reis, as declared by the UNESCO Turkish National Commission on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the drawing of a world map by Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. The Topkapı Palace Museum Directorate prepared the exhibition in collaboration with the Bilkent Cultural Initiative (BKG).The show presents 63 pieces from the museum's archive. Piri Reis's maps of 1513 and 1528 and his "Kitab-ı Bahriye" (Book of Navigation) are among the highlights of the show.Other maps by historian-geographer Katip Çelebi, admiral and cartographer Ali Macar Reis and mathematician and cartographer Matrakçı Nasuh are also featured.In addition, the exhibition is showcasing sketches of towers the Ottomans used during the Siege of Szigetvar and Belgrade and Ottoman books on geography.