The name of the great domestic science fiction writer Kir Bulychev is known to everyone in our country - children and adults. However, I. V. Mozheiko, who worked under the pseudonym Kir Bulychev, was not only a master of science fiction, but also a scientist - a historian and orientalist, and his books about our past are in no way inferior to his fascinating works about the distant future... Here is a fascinating book in which I. V. Mozheiko talks about the great geographical discoveries of the distant past - discoveries that are told not in history textbooks, but in ancient manuscripts or oral traditions, often long ago turned into legends. Why did the seas and islands always play a tragic role in Napoleon’s fate? What secrets do abandoned ships hide, about which sailors have long told strange, frightening stories? Did the Vikings really discover America - or were they not the first sailors to land in the New World? These are just a few of the stories that the author of this amazing book told readers.