Nerd History: The European Island of Brazil

One of my favorite blogs is Strange Maps, which shared this story about the Island of Brazil. It's bizarre, and I like sharing my favorite blogs with people, so let's explore.

So the story goes, Brazil - or Hy-Brazil, as it was known - was part legend, part myth, part cartography error. John Cabot was believed to have been there in the late 1400s. It was apparently difficult to find because it was perpetually surrounded by mist, only becoming visible one day every seven years. It was discovered, and then undiscovered, and discovered, and undiscovered, over and over again until it stopped existing in the minds of people for good in the late 1800s.

It's a bizarre little factoid from a site full of them. Definitely spend some time at Strange Maps, you'll likely lose an entire afternoon. Also, if this sort of thing is up your alley, check out the book Lost States, a tribute to all the proposed states in the United States of America that never came to be.