Bermeja, the Island That Vanished
An island in the Gulf of Mexico appeared on maps for 300 years. When Mexico sent a ship to find it, there was nothing there.
What was reported
Bermeja was a small island marked on Spanish maps of the Gulf of Mexico from the 16th century, north of the Yucatán Peninsula. It appeared in atlases into the 20th century.
Then it couldn't be found. The question mattered, because an island there would extend Mexico's claim to the oil-rich seabed. In 2009 a Mexican survey ship searched the spot and found only deep water. Some Mexican politicians suggested it had been secretly destroyed to change the border.
Explanations offered
Researchers think it was a mapping error, perhaps a mistaken position for a real reef, copied from map to map. There's no evidence it ever existed, or that anyone blew it up.
- When
- On maps from 1539; searched for in 2009
- Where
- Gulf of Mexico, off the Yucatán Peninsula
- Witnesses
- Mapmakers for more than three centuries
- Status
- Never existed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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