# Here be dragons **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 27, 2004, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-be-dragons/236697 "2004-03-27T05:45:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-be-dragons/236697/1 "2004-03-27T05:45:53Z")
It a common joke that back in earlier times, ignorant mapmakers would write the words “Here be dragons” on regions of their maps that weren’t explored. Is there any truth to this? Did those words ever appear on any actual map? If so, are we certain that the original mapmaker who wrote it didn’t actually intend it as a joke? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-be-dragons/236697/2 "2004-03-27T06:34:06Z")
[http://www.maphist.nl/extra/herebedragons.html](http://www.maphist.nl/extra/herebedragons.html) In the Middle Ages it was apparently not unusual for maps to show _pictures_ of dragons or dragon-like creatures in pagan regions, but there are no historical maps using the _phrase_ in English. There is exactly one globe using the phrase in Latin (_h_c sunt dracones\*). It is the Lenox Globe (early 16th century). One of the also-rans is the Borgia map (15th cen.) part of the text of which says > [@](#): > > _Hic etiam homines magna cornua habentes longitudine quatuor pedum, et sunt etiam serpentes tante magnitudinis, ut unum bovem comedant integrum_ > “Here also are huge men having horns four feet long, and there are serpents also of such magnitude that they can eat an ox whole”