Cary’s map of Africa is especially notable for including not one, but two, imaginary mountain ranges: the Mountains of Kong, in West Africa, and the Mountains of the Moon, in East Africa. Legends of the existence of the Mountains of the Moon, given as the source of the River Nile, date back to the Classical world and Ptolemy (c. 100–170 AD). Stories of their existence persisted throughout the middle ages and into the modern age. In Cervantes’s Don Quijote (1605, see above), the eponymous hero remarks that the noise of a river makes it seem ‘as though it were precipitating and dashing itself down from the lofty mountains of the Moon’. The Mountains of the Moon were included in 

’s (c.1460–1533) 1507 map of the world – the first to have recorded the 

 – as the source of the Nile, reflecting ‘Arabic mapping tradition’.

As with the later Mountains of Kong, the reasonable belief that the River Nile had to start somewhere led to the invention of a ‘real’ geographical feature, that accreted credibility as the legend persisted through the centuries.

In this strikingly authoritative map, redolent of Enlightenment confidence in the empirical method, myth and imagination are given a scientific imprimatur.

Ex Carta

This detailed map of Africa by the English cartographer John Cary reflects the period’s confidence in geographical science while drawing heavily on contemporary travel accounts and earlier authorities. It notably includes two celebrated phantom ranges – the Mountains of Kong in West Africa and the Mountains of the Moon in the east – demonstrating how conjecture and inherited legend could become embedded within apparently authoritative cartography.

The English cartographer and surveyor John Cary (1755–1835), originally from Wiltshire, established a reputation in London as an engraver after a series of apprenticeships beginning in 1770.

Going into business with two brothers, he specialised in geographical maps, publishing his first atlas in 1787. His 

 (1808) includes this map of Africa, proudly declaring it to be based on information from ‘the latest authorities’, including, evidently, Park and Rennell’s 

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa.

Cary’s map of Africa is especially notable for including not one, but two, imaginary mountain ranges: the Mountains of Kong, in West Africa, and the Mountains of the Moon, in East Africa. Legends of the existence of the Mountains of the Moon, given as the source of the River Nile, date back to the Classical world and Ptolemy (c. 100–170 AD). Stories of their existence persisted throughout the middle ages and into the modern age. In Cervantes’s 

 (1605, see above), the eponymous hero remarks that the noise of a river makes it seem ‘as though it were precipitating and dashing itself down from the lofty mountains of the Moon’. The Mountains of the Moon were included in Johann Ruysch’s (c.1460–1533) 1507 map of the world – the first to have recorded the New World – as the source of the Nile, reflecting ‘Arabic mapping tradition’. (Ehrenberg, 2006)

As with the later Mountains of Kong, the reasonable belief that the River Nile had to start somewhere led to the invention of a ‘real’ geographical feature, that accreted credibility as the legend persisted through the centuries. In this strikingly authoritative map, redolent of Enlightenment confidence in the empirical method, myth and imagination are given a scientific imprimatur.

John Cary's Map of Africa