Gog and Magog

5.29

Excerpt from
Gog and Magog on mappaemundi and Early Printed World Maps: Orientalizing
Ethnography in the Apocalyptic Tradition By Andrew Gow
augmented with referenced maps and references to relevant monographs

Belief in the fast-approaching end of this world and in the Last Judgment, a core
component of pre-modern European religion and culture, had a profound influence on
mappaemundi and early printed maps. As with many abstract concepts, medieval and
early modern Christians gave this set of ideas concrete form in numerous ways. One of
the most revealing and useful ‘concretizations’ of apocalyptic angst was the legend of
the destroyers Gog and Magog. This medieval tale was based on the New Testament's
distortion of “Gog from the land of Magog” (Ezekiel 38-39) in Revelation 20,7-8 as Gog and
Magog. The peoples thus invented found their way beyond ecclesiastical circles via
popular legends and stories, especially the Alexander cycle. Far from representing only
physical geography and a largely legendary ethnology, mappaemundi charted the
“history of salvation” (Heilsgeschichte) and the temporal relations of past, present and
future via depictions of apocalyptic figures, many of them alien destroyers.
The Alexander legend of later antiquity, based broadly on Josephus recounting,
tells how Alexander, marching eastward, came upon wild peoples (feras gentes) or
unclean peoples (immundas gentes), who ate human flesh and had other equally vile
customs. To keep them from destroying the rest of the world, Alexander drove them
between two mountains, then asked God to push the two mountains together and
imprison them. This story found its way not only into later versions of the Alexander
legend, but also into the Qu’ran and the influential Greek Revelations of Pseudo-
Methodius, which date from the end of the seventh century. The Apocalypse of Pseudo-
Methodius is a seventh century apocalypse that shaped the eschatological imagination of
Christendom throughout the Middle Ages. The work was written in Syriac in the late
seventh century, in reaction to the Islamic conquest of the Near East, and is falsely
attributed to the fourth century Church Father Methodius of Olympus. It depicts many
familiar Christian eschatological themes: the rise and
rule of Antichrist, the invasions of Gog and Magog,
and the tribulations that precede the end of the
world.
The Gog and Magog people being walled off by
Alexander’s forces.Jean Wauquelin's Book of Alexander.
Bruges, Belgium, 15th century

Around 700 CE, this latter text was translated into

Latin by the monk Peter in Merovingian Gaul and
very widely disseminated in the west, where it
became a standard of Christian apocalypticism. In this
version, the unclean peoples originally thought to have been enclosed by Alexander
were identified with Gog and Magog, the apocalyptic destroyers of Ezekiel 38-39 and
Revelation 20,8. The Pseudo-Methodian Revelations enjoyed an uninterrupted popularity;
they were printed in numerous editions during the 15th and 16th centuries. Gog and
Magog were, in all these versions, enclosed only temporarily: at the end of time, God
would allow them to escape from their eastern prison and devastate Christendom. The
Revelations of Pseudo-Methodius also prophesied that the Antichrist would deceive and

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gather in the scattered Jews to Jerusalem, where they would serve him as their Messiah.
This vilification is easily recognized as a hostile reading of the apocryphal fourth book of
Ezra. It originated in the prophecy of the Tiburtine Sibyl and would prove to be
prophetic regarding the medieval development of the story of Gog and Magog: here
apocalypticism met anti-semitism, in which it found unusually fertile soil.
The famous Historia de preliis magni Alexandri started out with the title Nativitas et
victoria Alexandri Magni. This was a 10th century Latin translation of the Greek Alexander
romance by the Pseudo-Callisthenes. It proved very popular in Latin and in numerous
vernacular translations, and was printed early on as the Historia de preliis Alexandri
magni. The later, interpolated versions of the 11th and 12th centuries, (between 1185 and
1236), describe the enclosure of Gog and Magog by Alexander to protect the world from
these savage nations. This story was a best-seller throughout the Middle Ages and into
the early modern era. It was printed in numerous versions, both Latin and vernacular.
Not only did versions of these canonical texts continue to circulate until well past
the Reformation, the stories they contained seeped into all manner of medieval
exegetical and literary works. Gog and Magog became a topos of salvation-history. Of
considerable historical interest is the frequency with which Gog and Magog appeared on
early world maps. Their survival on world maps well beyond the point at which the
dominant cultural and intellectual discourses had cast strong doubts on their existence is
also worth exploring. Mapmakers are notoriously conservative, but the continued
appearance of Gog and Magog on late 16th and 17th century maps demands more of an
explanation, which in turn requires a history
of the theme itself.
Important sources for traditional
cartography are to be found in literary,
exegetical and theological texts, and in
many other contexts. Out of these grew
mapmakers’ depictions of the legendary
peoples Gog and Magog. The sheer
antiquity of this tradition suggests that
even before the west had very much of a
clear identity, the Gog and Magog story
was part of the rich fund of story and lore
inherited from antiquity and cherished - if
somewhat tattered by frequent handling -
until the advent of more skeptical and
critical approaches to tradition and
authority. Thus, western identity, from its
earliest beginnings, rests on this and other such views concerning “who was out there”
and who was not “like us”. Tradition, especially of the hallowed Biblical and quasi-
biblical sort, defines both form and content for the middle ages and for the early modern
centuries.
By the 12th century, western Christians had by and large come to believe a
number of things about Gog and Magog: they were the same as the Ten Lost Tribes of
Israel; they had been enclosed behind an impenetrable wall until the end of time by
Alexander; and that they would break out at the time of Antichrist and devastate the
world. While world maps often record a variant based on this conflation as iudei clausi
[enclosed jews] or iudei inclusi, many place both these imaginary Jews and Gog and

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Magog in the far northeastern part of Asia.

Late-antique and medieval world maps, from Jerome’s map of the Orient (see
monograph 225.4) to the Catalan Atlas of 1375 (#235), generally used the term Gog and
Magog to refer to the much-storied apocalyptic destroyers. Other genres, especially those
produced for a more general (particularly a vernacular) readership, tended after 1200 to
refer to the ten tribes, the Red Jews, etc. Later maps commonly use the terms iudei clause
or inclusi, mirroring a different mindset more oriented toward social realities and
conflicts. However, throughout this period, Gog and Magog usually appear in the far
north and/or east, often in a separate peninsula or surrounded by a wall, a mountain
chain or kept in by a gate. Later medieval and early modern maps continue the tradition,
but with significant differences.
Gog and Magog appeared on Arabian maps as Yajoj wa Majoj from the 10th
century they appear on Al-Idrisi’s map of 1154 (#219) under the same names. What
direct influence Arabic maps had on later western cartography is hard to tell, but Al-
Idrisi’s map, made as a metal plate for Roger of Sicily, was famous. Al-Idrisi’s map
places Gog and Magog in northern China, behind a great wall with a tower and a door; at
the wall is an inscription, translated as “belongs to the Kufaya mountain range which encloses
Gog and Magog”. An explicit reference to Dul-Karnai’in (an Arabic name for Alexander,
among others) by the gate, leaves no doubt as to Idrisi’s source.

Al-Idrisi's world map (see monograph #219) with Gog and Magog behind the wall and circled in
red. Note, this map is oriented to the south so here Gog and Magog are in the proximity of China.

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The British Library’s early 11th century Cottonian Anglo-Saxon map (#210) places
Gog and Magog hard by the northern ocean, west of the Caspian Sea and the ten tribes
appear in the Middle East. The map’s author had not yet identified these peoples with
one another. The two legends are treated separately, as in patristic literature.
To the west of the Caspian Sea can be found Gog and Magog, adjoined by the
Turchi; the Bulgari is placed between the Danube and the Arctic Ocean; and Taprobane
[Sri Lanka] occupies the place usually given to the Terrestrial Paradise. The Cottonian map
places Gog and Magog hard by the northern ocean, west of the Caspian Sea and the Ten
Lost Tribes appear in the Middle East. The map’s author had not yet identified these
peoples with one another. The two legends are treated separately, as in patristic
literature.

Gog and Magog on the Cottonian map (#210)

In the 12th century, a mappamundi that was until recently attributed to Henry of
Mainz, now known as the Sawley map (#215) put Gog and Magog on a peninsula
surrounded by mountains and blocked at its south end by a wall, suggesting the
Alexander story was the source of this detail.

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Gog and Magog on the Sawley mappamundi (#215)

A map in the 1120 Ghent manuscript of the Liber Floridus by Lambert de Saint-
Omer (c. 1050-1125) is labeled Globus terre and Augustinus elementa mundi (#217). In the
northeast corner, surrounded by a semicircular ring of water, called mare caspium, is an
island on which are the words Gog Magog, another reference to the Alexander legend.
This seems to fit well with the contemporary view of Gervase of Tilbury (c.1150-c.1220),
who wrote in his Otia imperialia (a collection of geography, history and curiosities,
composed around 1212 for the entertainment of Otto IV), that in India there is a Mons
Caspius, after which the Caspian Sea is called, between which and the [same] sea Gog and
Magog, most savage peoples, were enclosed by Alexander. The Far East is still psychologically
very far off indeed in the 12th century, the original context of this map. The position of
Gog and Magog, just beyond “Babilon”, in or at the edge of the Caspian Sea, bespeaks a
view of a much smaller world than the one later maps (such as those of Ebstorf and
Hereford - #224 and #226) would represent. A less clear reference to the Alexander legend
appears on the London Psalter map (second half of the 13th century, #223): in the northeast,
a mountain chain in which a large gate is placed separates an unnamed region from the rest of the
world.

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Matthew Paris’ Map of Palestine

Jerusalem is the square at the upper right with a much larger walled city of Acre occupying the
center. The extension of its city walls to the left show the fortifications constructed by St Louis
during his crusade in 1252-4. At the upper left is the enclosure in which Alexander confined Gog
and Magog, but Matthew notes that they have now emerged in the form of Tartars. (#225.4).

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Isidore mappamundi, ca. 1130, known as the Munich map, 26 cm diameter (#205DD)
Bayerische Staatsbibliotek, Munich, Clm 10058, f. 154v

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On the Munich map shown above, the islands

where Gog and Magog are locked away, which are
drawn as circular protuberances on a rectangular
island in the northern ocean, across from the regie
amazonum [region of the Amazons], whereas they
are most often drawn in Asia and separated from
the rest of the world by a wall said to have been
erected by Alexander. This interpretation was based
on a reading of the Apocalypse of the Pseudo-
Methodius (beginning of the eighth century), in the
form of breasts. The Munich map represents Gog
and Magog, the apocalyptic peoples living on two
islands of the northern ocean, shown as a square
and two rounded protrusions. Their particular
shape is the graphic expression of ubera Aquilonis
mentioned for the first time in the Apocalypse of the
Pseudo-Methodius, written in Syriac and translated
into Greek and Latin at the beginning of the eighth
century. The text evokes two mountains suspended
from the sky, which Alexander obtains through his
prayers in order to enclose Gog and Magog. They are
designated as Ubera aquilonis or in Greek, Matou do bora; breasts of the north, in
Sibyllinische Texte und Forschungen, ed. F. Saschur (Halle, 1898), p. 73. At a point at which
the map was being transmitted, an illustrator represented the 'Ubera aquilonis' as breast-
shaped islands in the ocean. A variant of this association between the 'breasts of the
north' and this insular space can be found on the Ebstorf map, where two islands bear
the inscriptions Ubera and Aquilonis. The map's mix of drawings and legends attempts
to make the physical space occupied by the world comprehensible, by allowing the
identification of objects represented through imagery as much as inscriptions.

Gog and Magog consuming humans.

—Thomas de Kent’s Roman de toute chevalerie,
Paris manuscript, 14th century.

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Ibn Sa’id’s world map from the Kitab al-bad’ wa-al-ta’rikh, 13th century
(oriented with East at the top) 28.5 cm diameter (#221)

Siberia is marked as the land of Gog and Magog, who are separated from the rest of the world by
the wall built by Alexander the Great, shown here together with the vignette of a gate.

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Gog and Magog on islands off the coast of northeast Asia Zonal world map from Liber
Floridus (Herzog-August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Cod. Gud. Lat I, folios 69v-70r)
Lambert St Omer, 12th century (#217)

The Ebstorf and Hereford world maps (between 1214 and 1273 and between 1276
and 1305, #224 and #226 respectively) are very similar and may derive from a common
source. As in the Revelations of the Pseudo-Methodius, Gog and Magog (on the Ebstorf map)
are cannibals; they are pictured in the midst of a northeastern area walled-off by
mountains through which a passage, named Porte Caspie, leads. The creatures are eating
human body parts (recognizable as feet and hands) and drinking the blood flowing out
of them; a footless, handless victim is also depicted. According to the caption, Alexander
enclosed two wild nations, Gog and Magog, who will be the companions of Antichrist. They eat
human flesh and drink human blood. The Turks (Islam) are also written into this hostile
ethnography: on the edge of the map, but in Europe, is the caption The city and island of
Taraconta which is inhabited by Turks of the race of Gog and Magog, a barbarous and wild people
who eat the flesh of young people and aborted foetuses. This is a traditional story taken from
Ethicus Ister. On the other hand, charges of cannibalism leveled against the Jews of
Fulda in 1235 - an early example of the ritual murder libel -provide a vivid backdrop to
the cannibalism depicted on the Ebstorf map and suggest that the identification of Gog
and Magog with Jews was not merely literary, but spilled over into real life.

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An extensive area of northern Asia is cut off by the

sweeping curve of the Caucasus. Its principal feature is
a territory that projects as a rectangle into the cosmic
ocean. This is the home of the dreaded man-eaters Gog
and Magog, symbols of all the hordes of oppressors that
might at any time overwhelm peaceful humanity. The
castellated lines indicate the walls that Alexander the
Great was reputed to have built here for extra
protection. Gog and Magog are shown on the Ebstorf
map as cannibals; they are pictured in the midst of a
northeastern area walled-off by mountains through
which a passage, named Porte Caspie, leads. The
creatures are eating human body parts (recognizable as
feet and hands) and drinking the blood flowing out of
them; a footless, handless victim is also depicted. The
In the Middle Ages scholars were also greatly
interested in the exploits of Alexander the Great who
became legendary, therefore a number of drawings and
inscriptions in Asia are associated with him: i.e., five bell-tents, the central one with a
cross, rising from an altar-style base on the boundary between Asia and Africa; a
gateway with opened doors at the end of an eight-mile mountain pass, representing the
Caspian Gates through which Alexander was said to have passed on his way north; the
city of Choolissima, conventionally drawn, capital of the land of Magog, taken by
Alexander after a long siege; two islands in the northern ocean, Miopar and Mirabilis,
appeased by presents and entreaties; the island of Terraconta inhabited by intractable
cannibalistic Turks “from the stock of Gog and Magog”; and finally the battlemented wall
with which he imprisoned “the accursed descendants of Cain”. Below this area is the
land of the Scythian races. Obviously knowledge of this part of the world was very
limited and the space was thus filled with dramatic pictures.
The tale of cannibalism is repeated on the Hereford world map: on a five-sided
peninsula, enclosed on four sides by mountains and to the south by a wall. The
inscription states that the horrors in this place are worse than can be imagined, it is intolerably
cold and a cutting wind (called “bizo” by the inhabitants -- cf. Fr. “bise”) blows from the
mountains. The inhabitants are without culture, feed on human flesh and blood, descend from
Cain and were enclosed by God through Alexander the Great--in his presence, an earthquake
brought down the mountains around them and where there were no mountains, Alexander built a
wall. To the south of this wall another caption states that those enclosed here are the same
cannibals mentioned by Solinus, who will break out at the time of Antichrist and devastate the
world. Finally, the island of Terraconta is said to be inhabited by Turks of the race of Gog
and Magog, a barbarous and wild people who eat the flesh of young people and aborted
foetuses much as on the Ebstorf map. There is elsewhere on the Hereford map a depiction
of cannibals eating human body parts, though without an explanatory caption in
proximity.

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Alexander’s Wall

Caspian
Gates

A few contemporary examples that also relate to geography but come from very
different kinds of sources will suffice to show that this is not just mapmakers’
superstition or fantasy. The philosopher and scientist Roger Bacon (ca. 1220-after 1292)
wrote in his “collected works”, the Opus Maius (ca. 1265), that knowledge of geography
was necessary to know about the Ten Lost Tribes, that is, Gog and Magog. He was
concerned with where they are, not only so that the nations in those places [the north,
where Alexander enclosed Gog and Magog] might be converted, not only to save
Christians who are held captive there, but also on account of the persecutions of the
Antichrist, such that we might know whence he is to come and when. Bacon’s concerns
are grounded in Biblical authority, though he follows contemporary convention in
confusing the ten tribes with Gog and Magog. Marco Polo (1254-1324) seems to have
asked about Gog and Magog on his journeys through Mongol China: “It is the place which
we call in our country Gogo and Magog, but they call it Ung and Mungul, and in each province
there was one people, in Ung were the people of Gog and in Mungul lived the Tartars.”

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Ranulph Higden’s world map, c. 1350

(#232) shows a walled-off area in the
northeast, south of the Caspian Sea. That
the Caspian is not an inland sea but open
to the ocean signals this depiction’s
conservatism. The text specifies that Gog
and Magog will break out at the end of
the world and do great damage, and that
they were enclosed by Alexander.
Higden’s work seems to have been very
popular: around 185 Latin manuscripts
traceable to Higden’s design.

The Catalan Atlas of c.1375

(#235) reflected Catalonian sea-going
trade and knowledge in the 14th
century and had a number of
predecessors, notably northern
Italian maps from which Catalan
cartographers seem to have adopted
details for the far east--details that
derive from Marco Polo’s famous
account. Gog and Magog figure very
prominently on the map of 1375. In
the northeast corner of Asia, enclosed
by the Caspian Mountains, is a
mounted figure, ‘the great lord, prince
of Gog and Magog. He will come at the time of Antichrist with a great following. His followers
hold a baldachin above him. The captions note that Alexander enclosed ‘the Tartars Gog and
Magog’ in the Caspian Mountains (with the aid of Satan!) as well as other nations who
dared to eat raw flesh and with whom the Antichrist will come. This slightly altered
traditional story was not an optional part of a world map, nor was it susceptible to
‘critical realism’ (even though its author, Cresques, doubts that Alexander could have
got so far to the east). So even if the cartographer was skeptical, his audience clearly
expected to find these details in this place. As if to complete the ‘apocalyptic geography’, in
another mountainous cell beside that of Gog and Magog, Christ distributes the palms of
immortality to the faithful (kings, nations, bishops, monks). A caption cites Isaiah 66, 19
to the effect that at the time of judgment the Lord will send out prophets to convert
distant nations who have not yet heard of him. This effectively ties the ends of the earth
to the End of the World. The rotation that forces the reader to study the northern part of
the map from the top reinforces the sense that the north is separate from the rest of the
world.
Alexander the Great is shown in the upper right half of the map. There we are
told that Satan came to his aid and helped him to imprison the Tartars Gog and Magog.
Alexander then had two bronze figures made by which to bind them with a spell. The
reference is to the gate that Alexander is supposed to have built in the Caspian Mountains
to exclude Gog and Magog, who are here equated with various Central Asian tribes. The

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text on the map specifically refers to the “various tribes who have no scruples about eating
any kind of raw flesh..., the nation from which the Antichrist will come forth,” but which will
ultimately be destroyed. There is a further allusion to Alexander having erected two
trumpet-blowing figures in bronze; these, according to various medieval legends,
resounded with the wind and frightened the Tartars until the instruments were blocked
up by various nesting birds and animals. The text freely combines the medieval legend
of Alexander with biblical traditions. This applies equally to the corresponding scene,
where the great lord and ruler over Gog and Magog is shown with his men, the devil
painted on their banners: “He will march out with many followers at the time of the
Antichrist” but will ultimately be defeated as predicted in the Book of Revelation (20: 7-10).
To the south are those who will be sent to declare his glory among the Gentiles. The text
here refers to Isaiah 66:19: “I shall send those who are saved to the peoples of the sea, to Africa
and Lydia”; and further, “I will send to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither
have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.” To this prophetic
inscription is added a text about the Antichrist.

The people of Gog and Magog following their monarch,

bearing banners with the emblem of the devil, detail of the Catalan Atlas portion of Asia.

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Alexander the Great accompanied by

Satan, who helped him imprison the
peoples of Gog and Magog, and the two
bronze statues of trumpeters he ordered
erected. Wind blowing through the
trumpets frightens the Tartars,
detail of the map of Asia

In Mandeville’s Travels, the enormously popular 14th century armchair travelogue

and catalogue of wonders, the narrator claims that the Jews of the Ten Tribes, whom
men call Goth and Magoth, were enclosed in the ‘Caspian Mountains’ by Alexander, and
that they will escape at the time of Antichrist and slaughter Christians in great numbers.
Not merely a book of fables to contemporaries, Mandeville’s Travels both reflected and
reproduced the world view of literate Europeans in the later Middle Ages.
The so-called Borgia map (#237), a round mappamundi, probably of south German
manufacture, was engraved (anonymously) on a copper plate around 1430. In the far
east, within two square regions surrounded by mountains and oriental-looking towers
or fortifications, are the captions: “The province of Gog, in which, at the time of Artaxerxes,
king of the Persians, the Jews were enclosed” and “Magog in these two [regions] are huge
peoples, giants, full of all evil customs. They [are those who] Artaxerxes collected from all parts of
Persia”. The coasts of the Black and Mediterranean Seas follow ancient and medieval
tradition; indeed, the map seems very medieval in form. Nonetheless, the shape of
Africa and northern Asia suggests the influence of Catalan world maps, that is, the
reception of new knowledge. The Portuguese ‘discoveries’ and the west coast of Africa
(Cape Bojador, 1434) do not appear. The confusion of the monstrous and evil peoples
Gog and Magog with Jews is typical for the time. It is worth noting that the exile of the
Ten Lost Tribes is attributed (as in most medieval sources) not to Salmanassar (II Kings
17), but (incorrectly) to the Persian King Artaxerxes. This king, according to the
apocryphal fourth book of Ezra or Esdras (7,7) allowed the Jews of his realm to emigrate
to the Holy Land, but did not collect them. Biblical accuracy was not a priority in this
type of text/map. This is the first map known to me to list the iudei inclusi - whom it
implicitly identifies as Gog and Magog.

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On Andrea Bianco’s 1436 map (#241), in the north of Asia, on a peninsula that
stretches far out into the sea, are the words “Gog Magog chest Alexander gie ne roccon
ecarleire de tribus iudeoron” [Gog and Magog of the Jewish tribes whom Alexander
enclosed in the rocks (mountains) ages ago]. Gog and Magog begin at this time, following
the trend established by the 12th century in popular exegesis, to be confused on world
maps with Jews, especially the Ten Lost Tribes. However, this map’s treatment of Gog
and Magog is different from that on any other map. Bianco depicts this land as an
extension of Asia that juts out into the blue border surrounding his map, as if beyond
the middle of d’Ailly’s equinoctial circle (#238).

Detail of Bianco’s 1436 mappamundi showing Adam & Eve, the Terrestrial Paradise and
the four great rivers (right) and the location of the notorious Gog and Magog on a peninsula (left)

The Benedictine monk Andreas Walsperger of

Constance made a world map in 1448 (#245), which is
now in the Vatican. Destombes transcribes a caption
in the far northeast: “Waldachat, the capital of Cathay,
where the Great Khan resides, Cannibals eat human flesh
[figure of a cannibal]; Gog and Magog, land of the Red
Jews enclosed by the Caspian Mountains”. Walsperger’s
map testifies generally to an enduring belief in fables
and monsters: “And around this pole [the Antarctic one]
are most amazing monsters not only of the animal variety
but even among humans”.

A Genoese world map of 1457 (#248) abandons

the northeastern quarter of Asia to the apocalyptic peoples: surrounded by impassible
mountains and in the north and east by the ocean is a large territory in which are placed
trees and fortresses. In this enormous prison, labeled Scythia ultra Ymaum montem
[Scythia beyond Mount Ymaus], is the word MAGOG in large letters (perhaps in
Ezekiel’s sense as a country?). D. Wuttke (Karten der seefahrenden Volker) provides a

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transcription of the captions in the margins and in the figure. The relevant ones here
read (in the west): “From this people, that is from the tribe of Dan, Antichrist or [...] will be
born, who, opening up these mountains by means of nefarious arts [...] will come to the mountain
chain that encloses them”; in the north-west: “Up to here live the ten enclosed tribes of the
Hebrew race.” In the southwest corner is a tower and a wall, underneath which is the
caption “The iron gates where Alexander enclosed the Tartars”. The Jews and the Tatars are
in the foreground here. Magog (Gog is missing), the Tatars, the Ten Lost Tribes, the
Antichrist and the Alexander story are mixed as though they naturally belonged in the
same place - as they by then did, at least in the literature and exegesis directed to the
literate but not learned. This point is made forcefully by the carefully empirical
skepticism of the contemporary cartographer Fra Mauro. Moreover, there seems to be
some doubt about the identification of the people enclosed. As mentioned above, the
inscription at the gate states that Alexander enclosed the Tartars. In the enclosed area,
“Magog” is inscribed in a style used elsewhere to indicate names of regions, but the
Tartars are not mentioned. The same is true of “Gog,” which is written just outside the
enclosure, along with a picture of two cranes attacking dwarves, the latter likewise
identified as Gog. Inside the enclosure, inscriptions identify the Hebrews, who lead an
excessive lifestyle, and the tribe of Dan, from which the Antichrist will be born.

Detail of so-called Genoese World Map: Region enclosed by Alexander (Magog) (#248)

Fra Mauro, a Camaldolese monk is best known for the 1459 mappamundi (#249).
Despite its firm roots in medieval learning, this remarkable map points toward a very
different cartographic method. Traditional and humanistic learning, practical
knowledge of “political geography” not surprising for a resident of the commercial
metropolis of the western Mediterranean, and a hard-boiled common sense vie for space
on this densely packed work. Mauro criticizes and emends Ptolemy whenever he feels

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he has less ‘corrupt’ or more recent information. It is worth citing Mauro’s text at length
because it is of the greatest cultural and historical interest, demonstrating the gulf that
separates him from many contemporary and later cartographers:

Some write that at the foot of the Caspian Mountains or a little ways distant are
those people, who, as one can read, were enclosed by Alexander the Great. But
this opinion is clearly erroneous and cannot be maintained in any way.

But it is certainly known that there is great diversity in the peoples who live
around this mountain such that so great a number of people could not be
unknown. Especially since these parts are civilized enough to be visited
frequently by our [merchants] as by other peoples, who are Sorsams, Mingresi,
Armenians, Circassians, Tatars and many other people who constantly travel this
way. Therefore if these peoples were those who were enclosed by him, I believe
that [travelers] would be aware of it, and they would be known to us. [...]
Therefore I conclude that these [enclosed] peoples are a long way from the
Caspian Mountains, and are surrounded by impassable mountains and by the
Ocean Sea as though by three cords, and they are under the reign of Tenduc, and
are called Ung and Mongul, which the common people call Gog and Magog,
thinking that they are those who will break out at the time of the Antichrist. But
this error certainly originates with some who distort Holy Scripture to suit their
own beliefs. I base my argument on the authority of St. Augustine, who in his
book on the City of God reproves the opinion of those who say that Gog and
Magog means those people who will be the followers of Antichrist. And Nicholas
of Lyra agrees with this judgment, and interprets these two names according to
the hebraica veritas [true Hebrew text and meaning of the Bible].

The people called Hu[ng]. These two countries are ruled by Tenduc. Of these it is
commonly believed that these people enclosed by Alexander in these countries of
Hung and Mongul derive their names from these two aforementioned countries,
which are called among us Gog and Magog, which opinion I do not believe. This
[land of] Mongul is inhabited for the most part by Tatar folk. [In the far north-
east, at the edge of the “occean”, is this legend:] Some believe that these
mountains are the Caspian Mountains. But this belief is not correct.

Mauro hesitates to banish Gog and Magog entirely, as he suggests they must be
far away, surrounded by mountains and the sea (as on most world maps at the time).
Yet he also denies their apocalyptic role, appealing to St. Augustine. He may even have
in mind older versions of the Alexander legend, in which not Gog and Magog, but
twenty-two (or twenty-four) unclean nations were enclosed. Finally, in the second text
alluding again to the enclosed nations, Fra Mauro notes that these areas (Hung and
Mongul, the names Marco Polo reports are used for Gog and Magog) are under the reign
of Tenduc and rejects the opinion that they are identical with Gog and Magog, as Mongul
is inhabited by Tatars (Mongols). Therefore, he undermines the possibility he allowed in
the other text that the enclosed peoples might still exist somewhere far from the
Caspian. The Caspian Mountains he essentially dismisses as a fable, though he cites
elsewhere the Alexander story as a source: a city called Bucifala was named by
Alexander in honor of his horse. Nonetheless, Gog and Magog continued to appear on
world maps for almost two centuries. The medieval world-view died very hard indeed.
Ptolemaic world maps (based on Ptolemy’s description of the world, #119)
enjoyed a vogue among humanists in the 15th century and helped establish a more

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‘secular’ image of the world beyond Europe. Generally, they eschewed the legendary
contents of medieval cartography. One variant of this classicizing cartography is the
“Sallust” map (#205). The Genevan Sallust map is one of many made in the 15th century
as illustrations to the De bello Iugurthino. Unlike any other maps of this kind, this one
seems to have been influenced by non-humanistic texts/culture and thus includes the
iudei inclusi and Gog and Magog, who live in different but abutting territories.

In a circular world map from 1470 included in a Ptolemaic atlas in the

Stiftsbibliothek at Zeitz, (#251), one reads north of the Caspian Sea, almost at the end of
the world, the legend: “Gog and Magog//the Jews of the 10 [tribes] [of Caspia?]//are enclosed
here”. Directly outside the gate holding them in are the characteristic legends “here the
pygmies fight with the cranes” (a reference to the ancient tale of the pygmies and the
cranes) and “here men eat the flesh of men”. Within the enclosure is a crowd of people, the
only ones depicted on the entire map, wearing pointed hats - a clear though exaggerated
reference to the “Jew’s hat” of medieval custom. The confusion of Gog and Magog with
the Ten Lost Tribes is not surprising unless contrasted with the careful scholarship of a

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Fra Mauro. Although this map derives, along with Walsperger’s 1448 map, from a
common original, circular in form, made around 1425 at the abbey of Klosterneuburg,
and therefore is not Ptolemaic in origin, some Ptolemaic maps adopted the legend of the
enclosed Jews, which, along with Gog and Magog, was passed down well into the 16th
century. This longevity may have been based on a sense of Biblical authorization, the
extreme distance at which these peoples were placed – “orientalized” and
“septentrionated” to the far end of Asia- or a popularity exceeding that of other
medieval legends.

Two very ‘medieval’ little maps, mere woodcuts that cannot compete with the
elaborate learning of large mappaemundi or Ptolemaic maps, appeared around 1480. Hans
Rust’s map, Das ist die mapa mundi, was printed in three editions at Augsburg (#253.2,
shown below). At the top left, by Persepolis, Parthia and the Euphrates is a mountain
chain, from which a head topped by a pointed Jew’s hat protrudes. The text reads
“Caspian Mountains Gog and Magog enclosed” [berg Caspij verschlossen Gog Magog]. A
similar map by Hans Sporer, Nuremberg (?) c. 1480, survives and it is worth noting that
precisely this detail survives when dozens of others had to be eliminated for reasons of
space.

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The Insularium of Henricus Martellus, a German cartographer active in the 1480s

at Florence, contains a world map (#256) of decidedly Ptolemaic character that would
exert considerable influence on cartography and exploration as the basis of Martin
Behaim’s famous 1492 globe (#258) and as part of Columbus’ world-view (#257). On
Martellus’ map, in the far northeast, surrounded by
mountains, is the caption “Iudei clausi”. Behaim’s globe
followed tradition in many details; his depiction of the
southeast coast of Africa was already quite outdated, as
Fra Mauro had had a more accurate knowledge of this
area. However, Behaim’s cartographic team depicted
neither Gog and Magog nor the enclosed Jews. This is
particularly striking given that they relied heavily on
the Marco Polo tradition for much of Asia and referred
to the Venetian many times on the globe itself.
Juan de la Cosa accompanied Christopher
Columbus in 1493 and later made three other voyages to the Americas. His chart of the
world of 1500 (#305), which in other contexts is of interest
for the depiction of the “new” world, shows in the “old”,
in the far northeastern corner of Asia, enclosed by a great
semicircular river and split by a broad moat, “R[egio] Got”
and “R[egio] Magot”: above R. Got is a dog-headed figure.
Above R. Magot is a humanoid monster whose face is in its
chest and who holds in each hand what appears, from the
color and shape, to be a piece of meat. The topos of Gog
and Magog as anthropophagi has been merged with Solinus’
blemmyae in the latter example, with another legend
concerning men with dog’s heads in the former.
In the top right corner at the farthest limits of the map’s
coverage in northern Asia de la Cosa places the monsters Gog and
Magog, one half dog and the other half with his head on his chest,
apparently eating human flesh

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Gog and Magog on the 1508 Ruysch world map #313

The early 16th century contains no turning point as regards Gog and Magog. Martin
Waldseemüller’s 1507 world map (#310), Johannes Ruysch’s 1508 (#313) and Francesco
Roselli’s 1508 oval woodcut map (#315) shows the iudei clausi [enclosed Jews] behind
mountains: next to Nestorian Christians in northern China on Waldseemüller and beside
them is Magog on Roselli.

Detail from Waldseemüller world map placing Nestorian Christians in northern China next to
the iudei clausi [enclosed Jews] #310

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Detail from Roselli #315

One reason for the continued popularity of this medieval theme may be the surge in
apocalyptic expectations around the beginning of the century, reflected in the
burgeoning pamphlet literature of an apocalyptic nature: prognostications of floods and
the end of the world had been popular since the 1470s; rumors of the Ten Lost Tribes
leaving their eastern places of exile to free their co-religionists in the Christian diaspora
circulated among Jews all through the 15th century and reached Christian circles in the
early 16th century. The publication of new editions of the Revelations of Pseudo-
Methodius, such as Michael Furter’s 1498 Basel edition, which includes a dramatic
woodcut of Gog and Magog breaking out of their rocky confinement (labeled “How Gog
and Magog, leaving the Capsian Mountains, capture the land of Israel”), must have
contributed a good deal to raising the apocalyptic temperature, as (in Germany) did the
perennially popular “Anti-Christ books”, a genre of popular apocalyptic exegesis related
to the vernacular historiated Bibles and that dates back to the late 14th/early 15th century.
Martin Waldseemüller’s Carta Marina of 1516 (#320) uses the caption “The Great
Tartar Gog Khan King of Kings and Lord of Lords”, a confusion of the Tatar/Mongol Khan
with Gog, perhaps a hang-over from Marco Polo’s long-lasting description of the area.
This caption was to reappear on several maps. Antoine de la Salle’s map of 1522
mentions Goc and Magoc. Peter Appian’s Ingolstadt map of 1530 contains both the iudei
clause and Magog, as does an anonymous Nuremberg print of 1535: the iudei clause are
north of Gogh et Magogh. One 1535 map of eastern Asia labels the northeastern coast
AMAGOCH; in the ocean off the north coast of China are numerous tents, at the centre
of which is the well-known text: the Great Tartar Gog Khan King of kings and Lord of Lords.
Gog and Magog have “gone native” in the Far East, devoid of original context but
evidently still powerful to conjure with. Another map of Asia, Asiae Novissima Tabula,
uses exactly the same caption in the far northeastern corner of Asia, north of China,
underneath Mongul. Waldseemüller’s agglomerative caption clearly expressed
connotations and images useful to other cartographers.

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Gerard Mercator’s early world map of 1538, a nice cordiform affair modeled on
the work of Oronce Fine, included in the far northeast of Asia the caption Amagoch.
Giacomo Gastaldi and Matteo Pagano’s Venice map of 1550 mentions Gog; various later
Gastaldi maps (e.g. 1555), and Paolo Forlani’s map of
1560 feature Balor and Giog; whereas Gastaldi’s 1561
Venice map shows neither iudei clause nor Gog and
Magog, but Tartari provincia throughout northeastern
Asia. The old legends seem to be drying up. However,
Gerard Mercator’s 1569 Duisberg map, his first using
the projection that bears his name, cites Marco Polo:
“Mongul which we call Magog”.
Indeed, Marco Polo’s authority
continues to influence depictions of the Far
East on world maps well into the 17th
century. On Rumold Mercator’s map of Asia
in Atlas sive Cosmographia meditationes de
fabrica mundi et fabricati figura (Duisburg
1595), in the far northeast corner of Siberia
are, three hundred years later, Polo’s Vng
al[ias] Gog and Mongul al[ias] Magog and on
the sheet entitled “The Arctic Pole and a
description of the adjacent lands”, again in the
far northeastern corner of Siberia, are Ung,
called Gog by us and Mongul alias Magog. The same text appears on a polar map of c. 1600:
Septentrionalium Terrarum descriptio Per Gerardum Mercatorem. The Helmstedt Globe
[Helmstedter Erdglobus], from the end of the 16th century, lists in far northeastern Asia,
reading from north to south: Bargu, Tatar (the river), Ung which is called Gog by us, Mongul.

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Willem Janszoon Blaeu’s globe, dated 1640, though probably 1648, labels far
northeastern Asia as follows: the farthest cape is Bargu; then come Mongul, Tekmongul and
Sumongul, Ung and Tenduc (the kingdom ruled by Christians at the time of M[arco] the
Venetian, 1290). In Vincenzo Coronelli’s Libro dei Globi (Venice 1693/1701), on the map
gore depicting China and northeastern Siberia, are Magog et Mongal and underneath this
Gog-IaGog et Ung. Marco Polo’s authority as ‘someone who had been there’ was clearly
strong even in the 17th century - rather an irony, since he was drawing more on his own
pre-programmed western Christian view of China than on his experience. ‘Empirical’
observation and tradition were perhaps less distinct than modern scientific terminology
suggests.
The term ‘ethnography’ might seem misleading when applied to a legendary
people, especially since this people and their characteristics are of secondary importance
compared to their function in a specific context. Yet precisely the apocalyptic role of Gog
and Magog requires and justifies their continued existence in a certain area as a people
with certain (horrific) characteristics that are specified both in text and in images. Even
as the medieval tradition of Gog and Magog loses its piquancy, showing up more and
more frequently without commentary, Gog and Magog remain a necessary part of
European views of the world. It might be argued that their gradual relegation to the far
northeastern corner of Asia, to an area largely unknown to Europeans, explains their
survival on maps. I would like to suggest that they are confined to the unknown end of
the world precisely because they are the unknown End of the World - they fill in, take
over where all other knowledge ceases, they explain the inexplicable and help make
intelligible the geographic and temporal extremes of an otherwise increasingly finite,
known world.
For many cartographers of the high Middle Ages, and for some in later periods,
Gog and Magog’s disgusting association with cannibalism and uncleanliness was in the
foreground, part of the apocalyptic charge sheet. The relative lack of such detail on later
maps does not necessarily mean mapmakers were reproducing a purely obligatory
trope: the hotter apocalyptic climate of the later period may well have made such detail
unnecessary. On the other hand, more precise Biblical scholarship, especially in the 16th
century, may have helped suppress such “additional” details, which I argue happens to
the legend of the Red Jews. But Gog and Magog far from disappear with the advent of
'empirical' cartography. The slow emergence of a more ‘empirical’ approach to
mapmaking, founded on the assumption that personal experience of a place was more
credible than ancient tradition, pushed Gog and Magog to the outer margins of the
world, to the ends of the earth where Marco Polo surmised they must be - since they
clearly were not anywhere the mapmakers’ informants had visited (cf. Mauro). Tradition
was being contested, yet it sometimes masqueraded as empirical evidence. While
tradition continued well into the 17th century to be used to fill crucial gaps, Swift
remarked trenchantly at the end of this period (1733):

So Geographers in Afric-Maps With savage Pictures fill their gaps And o'er uninhabitable
Downs Place Elephants for want of Towns.

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Iskandar (Alexander) builds a wall to seal Yajuj

and Majuj; here aided by divs (demons). Persian
miniature from a Falnama, 16th century.

The conflation of Gog and Magog with the

legend of Alexander and the Iron Gates was
disseminated through-out the Near East in
the early centuries of the Christianera. In the
Qu'ran Surah 18, Yajuj and Majuj [Gog and
Magog] are suppressed by Dhul-Qarnayn “the
two-horned one”, commonly interpreted to
mean Iskandar (Alexander the Great). Dhul-
Qarnayn, having journeyed to the ends of the
world, meets “a people who scarcely
understood a word” who seek his help in
building a barrier that will separate them
from the people of Yajuj and Majuj who “do
great mischief on earth”. He agrees to build
it for them, but warns that when the time
comes (Last Age), Allah will remove the
barrier and Yajuj and Majuj will swarm through.
The early Muslim traditions were summarized by Zakariya al-Qazwini (d. 1283,
#222) in two popular works called the Cosmography and the Geography. Gog and Magog,
he says, live near to the sea that encircles the Earth and can be counted only by God;
they are only half the height of a normal man, with claws instead of nails and a hairy tail
and huge hairy ears which they use as mattress and cover for sleeping. They scratch at
their wall each day until they almost break through, and each night God restores it, but
when they do break through they will be so numerous that “their vanguard is in Syria
and their rear in Khorasan".
When Yajuj and Majuj were identified with real peoples it was the Turks, who
threatened Baghdad and northern Iran; later, when the Mongols destroyed Baghdad in
1258, it was they who were Gog and Magog. The wall dividing them from civilized
peoples was normally placed towards Armenia and Azerbaijan, but in the year 842 the
Caliph Al-Wathiq had a dream in which he saw that it had been breached, and sent an
official named Sallam to investigate. Sallam returned a little over two years later and
reported that he had seen the wall and also the tower where Dhul Qarnayn had left his
building equipment, and all was still intact. It is not entirely clear what Sallam saw, but
he may have reached the Jade Gate, the westernmost customs point on the border of
China. Somewhat later the 14th century traveler Ibn Battuta reported that the wall was
sixty days’ travel from the city of Zeitun, which is on the coast of China; the translator
notes that Ibn Battuta has confused the Great Wall of China with that built by Dhul-
Qarnayn.

The following is an excerpt from the Geographicus Rare Antique Maps Blog, April 1, 2010.

The appearance of the lands of Gog and Magog in many early maps is one the
most interesting and enduring examples of Biblical lore being translated into the
cartographic medium. The kingdoms of Gog and Magog appear in many early maps of

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Asia and the World produced between about 1200 to 1750. Generally these kingdoms
are situated somewhere west of the Caspian Sea and, more frequently, to the north of
China around Mongolia or Siberia. How did they get there?
The tale of Gog and Magog is, of course, Biblical in origins with elements in
Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions. They appear in Genesis and Ezekiel as cursed
grandchildren of Noah and are set up early on as enemies of the righteous. The most
alarming mention of Gog and Magog appears in Revelation 20:7-8:

… And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed from his
prison, and shall go out to seduce the nations which are in the four corners of
the earth, Gog and Magog, and shall draw them to battle, whose number is as
the sand of the sea…

But who exactly where Gog and Magog and where did this terrifying empire have its
lands? The Biblical location “the four corners of the earth”, is not exceptionally helpful
save that it puts these nations at the extreme edge of existence. The Jewish historian
Josephus associates Magog with the Scythians. In antiquity Scythia was an empire to the
north of Parthia or Persia that included much of central Asia as far east as India and
Tibet.

World map from the Imperial Scroll [Tomar-I Hümãyun], ca. 1555
Oriented with South at the top. Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayi Kütüphanesi, A.3599

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Detail: Gog and Magog, the Encircling Ocean and Mount Qaf

Building Alexander's Walls.

The Building of Alexander’s Gates from an early Arabic manuscript.

The Alexander Romance, a ca. 300 CE compendium of stories and myths associated with
Alexander the Great, brings Gog and Magog into a historical context. Apparently when
Alexander marched his army into the Caucuses he discovered a people beset and
harassed by the empires of Gog and Magog to the north. Alexander responded to this
threat by constructing an enormous wall of adamantine between two mountains known
as the “Breasts of the World”. Today this is commonly associated with the Caspian
Gates of Derbent. This mighty wall, reminiscent of the Great Wall of China, stretches
some forty kilometers between the Caspian Sea and the nearby mountains, effectively
blocking passage through the Caucuses. Though Alexander had nothing to do with this
wall, it was actually constructed by the Sassanid Persians to defend against Gokturk
invasions, it does once again place the lands of Gog and Magog somewhere to the north
and west of the Caucuses.
Pliney too locates Gog and Magog behind a great set of gates in the Caucuses,
describing a place where the mountains have been torn asunder and “gates have been
placed, with iron covered beams, under the center of which flows a river emitting a
horrible odor. On this side of it on a rock stands the fortress called Cumania, erected for
the purpose of barring the passage of the innumerable tribes.”
The Qur’an next takes up this story and adds its own more mythical element. The
great hero Dhul Qarnayan (literally “two-horned one”, a reference to the ram horns
Alexander wears on coins minted during his rule to indicate his descent from the
Egyptian god Amun) is said to have walled the infernal armies of Gog and Magog behind
a great gate where they will remain – until doomsday. At this point, when Gog and
Magog are let loose and they rush headlong down every height (or advantage). Then will
the True Promise draw near. (Qur’an 21:96-97).

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The building of Alexander's Gates

from an early Arabic manuscript.

Al-Idrisi World Map

Al-Idrisi's world map (see monograph #219) with Gog and Magog behind the wall and
circled in red. Note, this map is oriented to the south so here Gog and Magog are in the
proximity of China.
In the ninth century the Caliph Al-Wathik-Billa actually sent out an expedition,
under one Sallam the Interpreter, to discover the Gates of Alexander. Sallam is said to
have searched the Caucuses high and low without success before heading deeper into
Asia where he discovered the mighty wall. Sallam’s report influenced a number of
important Islamic geographies, most importantly for this story, the 12th century
geographer Muhammed al-Idrisi, who was employed by the Sicilian monarch Roger II.
Idrisi directly associates Alexander’s Gates, and consequently Gog and Magog, with the
Great Wall of China. Idrisi’s work includes some of the most sophisticated and
advanced cartographic work of pre-modern Europe and profoundly influenced
European cartography for the next several hundred years. Though not widely
distributed in his lifetime, nor solely responsible for the presence of Gog and Magog in
later European maps, the influence of Idrisi’s map and geographical notations cannot be
ignored in any consideration of how these Biblical kingdoms/figures entered the
mainstream of later European cartography.

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In the rest of Europe, tales of Gog and Magog and the horrors associated with
them were a constant element in mediaeval religious rhetoric, which preached of an
imminent “end of days”. Saint Augustine in his 15th century religious classic “City of
God” discourses at length on the duo suggesting that when “final judgment is imminent
. . . the whole city of Christ being assailed by the whole city of the Devil, as each exists
on earth . . . which he names Gog and Magog”. Augustine did not associate Gog and
Magog with an actual place, but rather with an evil that existed all around us. Even so,
this concept must have been too abstract for the medieval man who continued to look
for the lands of Gog and Magog. History was about to oblige.

In 1241 CE the hoards of Ghengis Khan swept out of Asia destroying and
conquering everything in their path. The brutal, efficient, and alien Mongols must surely
have seemed to be the wrath of god unleashed – the prophesied end of days had come
and with it, Gog and Magog. One Russian chronicler says: “In those times there came
upon us for our sins unknown nations. No one could tell their origin, whence they came,
what religion they professed. God alone knows who they were, God, and, perhaps, wise
men learned in books.” The period of the Mongol invasions lasted roughly from 1241 to
1285 CE. Nonetheless, after devastating the Chinese Empire, sacking Baghdad, laying
waste to Russia, and storming into Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, and Poland, the
invincible hoard simply vanished … or so it must have seemed in Europe. In fact, beset
with internal political turmoil and the death of the Great Khan, the hoards retreated to
Central Asia in order to reorganize. At this time Europe, who had yet to rediscover
Ptolemy and truly develop a modern cartographic tradition, wasn’t actively making
maps, but when it did, a place of origin Tartars or Mongols (Gog and Magog) would have
to be identified.

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Marco Polo, in his Travels, is possibly the first European literary figure to
identify Gog and Magog with the Tartars. Polo, claimed to have lived in China from 1271
to 1298, where he became an important functionary in the court of Kublai Khan. Polo
worked for years as an emissary of the Great Khan and traveled extensively throughout
the vast empire. Much of the information about Asia appearing on early maps of the
continent, including the Vinland map (#243) and the Waldseemuler world map (#310),
can be directly linked to Polo’s narratives. Polo associates Gog and Magog with the lands
of Tenduk, a province to the north of China ruled by Prester John. In Polo’s narrative
Gog is translated as Ung and Magog is the home of the Tartars. Ibn Battuta, the great 14th
century Moroccan traveler, referring to the tale of Dhul Qarnayan, supports Polo by
himself connecting the Great Wall of China with the gates setup to restrain Gog and
Magog, “Between it [the city] and the rampart of Yajuj and Majuj is sixty days’ travel.”
Though many dispute the validity of Polo’s journals, his impact on the European
conception of the world was profound. With the rediscovery of Ptolemy’s Geography by
Italian humanists and the development of a sophisticated European cartographic
tradition the need for more advanced and updated Ptolemaic maps emerged. Many of
these maps referenced Polo and al-Idrisi in adding Gog and Magog in the unknown lands
of east Asia, thus influencing the cartographic representation of this area for centuries to
come.
Today Gog and Magog are considered by many scholars to be a Jungian
representation of “the other”, “the frontier”, or both.

References:
Anderson, A. R., Alexander’s Gate, Gog and Magog, and the Inclosed Nations, 1932.
The Chatauquan, Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, Chautauqua Institution, vol 3, pp. 304.
Augustine, Saint, The City of God, (Translated by Marcus Dods), page 658.
Boyle, J. A., “The Alexander Romance In The East And West”, Bulletin of the John Rylands
University Library of Manchester, 60 (1977), pp. 19–20.
Gow, Andrew, Gog and Magog on mappaemundi and Early Printed World Maps: Orientalizing
Ethnography in the Apocalyptic Tradition
Lester, Toby, The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Making of
History’s Greatest Map, pp. 45-64.
Pliny, Natural History, (translated by H. Rackham).
The Bible
The Qur’an
Stoneman, Richard (editor and translator) (1991). The Greek Alexander Romance. New York:
Penguin.
Yule, Henry; Cordier, Henri (1923), The Travels of Marco Polo, Mineola: Dover Publications.

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1697 Rossi Map of Asia - Magog appears north of China.

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Gog and Magog in Sanson’s 1691 world map

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In a paper presented at the Anne Marie Schimmel Kolleg, Bonn, Germany on

May 7, 2018, entitled “The Apocalyptic Abessinian: The genesis and transfer of an early
Islamic motif to Europe during the 5th crusade and its impact on the Horn of Africa in
Latin world maps”, Dr. Mordechay Lewy presented the following observations dealing
with the Christian eschatological anticipation of the “End of the World” expressed in
medieval world maps. (This is not the entire presentation, only excerpts)
The goal of this study was to detect cartographic evidence in order to
substantiate the claim of an apocalyptic area in the “Horn of Africa” in medieval world
maps. And, at the same time, to perform a critical examination of textual sources in
order to reconstruct the transfer of an apocalyptic early Islamic motif from its inception
until its incorporation in Latin prophecies of the 5th crusade and its further embedding in
the recuperatio literature after the loss of Acre in 1291.
In the southeast corner of the Psalter map (#223) we find a configuration of an
enclosed region at the Horn of Africa, but we don’t know exactly why. This enclosed
region looks similar to the northeast corner of the world map, which is known to be the
habitat of the apocalyptical Gog and Magog. Is this aemulatio in the sense of Michel
Foucault’s categories of similarities a hint that the Horn of Africa carries an
eschatological meaning as well?

A portion of the Psalter mappa mundi, 1225-1265 (#223) showing Gog & Magog on the left and
the Horn of Africa on the right (the map is oriented with East at the top)

But before dealing with this subject one has to clarify some geographical
nomenclature. Latin texts until the 14th century seldom differentiated between Ethiopia
and Nubia, since Europeans had limited contact with Africa in general and with Horn of
Africa in particular.
The term “Horn of Africa” did not exist in the middle Ages. It was called Punt
[Land of Gold] in ancient Egypt, in Greek geographical literature it was called Barbaria,
and in Arabic Bilad al- Barbara or Bilad al Zandj [Land of the slaves]. In the Bible, Ethiopia
is regarded as Kush which was located south of Egypt and was known also as the “Land
of Queen of Saba”. The term Nubia was unknown in Antiquity and was introduced into
Latin through Arab astrological tables and maps just as Abyssinia is derived from the
Arabic al-Habasha. In ancient geography Ethiopia was regarded as the third part of India.
In other words, it was a part of the Asian continent.

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The Nile served as the borderline between Asia and Africa. This geographical
configuration was considered valid for most of the medieval period.
The prototype of an apocalyptical area, which can be traced in 15 out of 37
medieval encyclopedic world maps, is the northeast edge of the world. The other 22
world maps belong mostly to the type of the Beatus Liebana maps (#207) that do not
specify certain direction where from Gog and Magog will invade the world. Those maps
are following the text of Revelation (20:8), in which Satan will deceive the nations and
Gog and Magog will join him from the four quarters of the earth.

A portion of the Sawley mappa mundi (#215) showing the location of Gog & Magog on the left
and the Horn of Africa on the right (the map is oriented with East at the top)

The Old Testament prophecies of Jeremias (1:14) and Ezekiel (38:6; 38:15 and 39:2),
considered the north as the direction where from the people of Gog and Magog, the
apocalyptical evil, will invade and destroy the world. As displayed on these medieval
maps the north is the habitat of the legendary savage people of Gog and Magog who
were enclosed behind the Caspian Gates by Alexander the Great. According to legend,
they are to be opened with the coming of the Antichrist who will proceed to destroy the
world. Like the Caspian Gates in the northeast, the Nubian Gate in the southeast is shaped
by geographic elements: it is enclosed by the Ocean around Horn of Africa and by
mountains.
Out of the selected 15 medieval world maps, eight maps portray simultaneously
closed gates in the northeast and the southeast of the world. They configure the enclosed
Horn of Africa like a peninsula. The group of eight maps were produced between 1130
and 1365. All of them belong to the type of encyclopedic world maps, which preserved
antique knowledge and were geared towards Christian salvation. The maps are: San
Munich Isidore map about 1130 (#205DD); Sawley map about 1190 (#215, see above); the

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Psalter map about 1265 (#223, see above); Vercelli map between 1270 and 1285 (#220.3);
Hereford map about 1295-1300 (#226); Ebstorf map about 1300 (#224); Ramsey Polychronicon
map about 1348 (#232); Aslake map about 1360-65. Out of eight maps six mark the
Nubian mountain chain, which encloses the Horn of Africa and completes the
peninsular configuration. Six out of the eight maps include a Nubian Gate. Five maps
have inscriptions although some in fragments which make difficult reading.

Aportion of the Munich Isidore mappa mundi, 1130 (#205DD) showing the location of Gog &
Magog on the left and the Horn of Africa on the right (the map is oriented with East at the top)

A portion of the Vercelli mappa mundi (#220.3) showing the location of Gog & Magog on the left
and the Horn of Africa on the right (the map is oriented with East at the top)

One fragment is from the Vercelli map whose state of preservation is deteriorating and
reaching almost total illegibility. The inscription reveals an “anthropological” reason
why the Horn of Africa was enclosed. Having the same configuration, the three maps
preceding Vercelli were following the same configuration of the Horn of Africa. It seems
likely that all four had the same Vorlage [original, prototype], which is otherwise not
known to us. This text could have been also relevant to the design of the other four maps
younger than the Vercelli, but Dr. Mordechay Lewy noted that this group of maps has a
special characteristic of their own, which insinuates with the term caspiarum similes an

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apocalyptical meaning. In
translation this inscription
reads: “The Nubian people are
enclosed through the Ocean,
the Red Sea and the Nile in
order to prevent intruders
because they possess
miraculous gems, so that they
[the gems] can provide them,
as it is told, with whatever
they wish”

A portion of the Hereford mappa mundi, ca. 1300 (#226) showing the location of Gog & Magog
on the left and the Horn of Africa on the right (the map is oriented with East at the top)

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A prtion of the Ebstorf mappa mundi ca. 1300 (#224) showing the location of Gog & Magog on
the left and the Horn of Africa on the right (the map is oriented with East at the top)

A portion of the Ramsey Abbey Polychronicon Higden map, ca. 1348 (#232) showing the
location of Gog & Magog on the left and the Horn of Africa on the right (the map is oriented with
East at the top)

This group of four maps shown above (Hereford, Ebstorf, Ramsey Polychronikon and
Aslake) could be singled out because each of them has a fragmented inscription which
Dr. Mordechay Lewy could reconstruct as common text which forms the “Nubian
Textblock”. Firstly, the illegible inscription of the Aslake fragment could be deciphered
while being compared with the Nubian inscription of Ebstorf map. The longer inscription
of Ebstorf was taken as original or prototype for all three other fragments that could form
a commonly shared text.
Their common text (below) includes the term caspiarum simile (the Nubian Gate
similar to the Caspian Gates), which is an apocalyptic insinuation well understood by
contemporaries. It implies an apocalyptical threat that is generated from the
eschatological area of the Horn of Africa. It seems to be directed against Islam.
Significantly, all four maps have been produced after the fall of Acre in 1291.

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The reconstructed common Nubian inscription, in translation:

“This place is called Moyselon, which means breakup of the water (…) those who live
here are called nubian Ethiopians. The people of the nubian Ethiopians are always
naked. (...) it is upright; extremely Christian, rich in gold and makes his living from
trade. It has three kings and three bishops. It travels often to Jerusalem in large numbers
and with a lot of money. It donates and honors to the Temple of the Lord a lot of money.
The Nubian Gates are similar to the Caspian [Gates], where the guards of the Nubians
prevent access from foreigners [prohibent]. It is 70 days travel far from the Egyptian
town Sais“. [On the Ebstorf mappa mundi it is written prebent [granting], but it seems to
be a mistake because it does not conform with Vercelli inscription and the illustration of
naked guards in Ebstorf map].
After losing Acre, Pope Nicolas IV. (1299- 1292) called for writing blue prints in
which plans to reoccupy the Holy Land would be designed. That is how the so-called
recuperatio literature began to flourish in Europe. In their books Marino Sanudo Torsello
(Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis, 1321) and William Adam (Tractatus quomodo Sarraceni
sunt expugnandi, 1317 and Directorium ad passagium faciendum, 1332) suggested to regard
the Christian Abyssinians as allies in combating Muslim rule. It seems however that the
European disillusionment from the Mongols as a potential ally in the East lead some to
believe that Christians in Ethiopia might substitute as an ally in attacking the Mamluks
from the south. Since the 5th Crusade, Christians shifted their strategy on how to regain
the Holy Land. Defeating the Ayyubids or Mamluks on Egyptian soil was considered to
be the key to re-conquer Jerusalem. In between the fame of Negus Amda Seyon (1314-
1344) in expanding his Abyssinian Kingdom at the cost of neighboring Islamic sultanates
has reached Europe already during his lifetime. He was known as Senapo or Abdelsalib
which means the servant of the cross.
There was, however, an additional reason to believe in the Abyssinian ability to
fight Muslims. There is a Hadith from an early Islamic tradition in which the apocalyptic
Abyssinian - Dhu’l suwaqatayin al Habaschi [the thin-legged Abyssinian] appears. The
Hadith states that an Abyssinian will destroy the Ka’aba at the End of the Days after Jesus
kills Gog and Magog. In all probability, this tradition reflects a traumatic memory from
the year 570, in which a supposedly Abyssinian invasion to Mecca using elephants
failed. Muslim exegesis attributes Surah 105 [the elephant] to this event, which falls on
the year of birth of Muhammad. Scholars considered this tradition alluding to the
historical subjugation of the Sabean Himyarite kingdom in South Yemen by the
Abyssinian viceroy Abraha. This event is documented in inscriptions dated in 543 and
547. The Abyssinan motif appeared first in the earliest Hadith collection of Nu‘aym ibn
Hammad‘s Kitab al- fitan, (chapters 74-75) during the first half of the 9th century. It was
integrated into the classical Ahadith collections of al-Bukhari and al-Muslemi soon after. It
should be noted that Islam as a newly emerging religion believed in a short
eschatological horizon which should last only seventy years.
This Hadith did not remain within Muslim apocalyptic belief. Contrary to
common knowledge, early Syrian apocalyptical texts, such as the Apocalypse of Pseudo-
Methodius, do not mention an apocalyptic Abyssinian. But in the History of the Coptic
Patriarchs of Alexandria one finds traces of this Muslim motif in the life of Patriarch
Cyril (1078- 1092). This motif can be detected as well in the Ethiopian (Ge’ez) apocalyptic
text which is dated prior to 1424 (The 10th Vision of [Pseudo] Apa Shenuda) which reads:
“The one who will refuse to pray and to declare the faith will be facing the sword.
Woe to the city of Mecca in these days! She will suffer from enormous number of

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troops of the Abyssinian king. They are so numerous that there will be not enough
stones to be taken for each of them in order to destroy [Mecca]. And so the flag of
this king will be raised beautifully and straight forward. And he [the Ethiopian
king] will dismiss the Egyptian king, capture his wife and replace him. On his
way home, he will approach again the [river] Geyon in order to take tribute from
the Egypt and from the King of Rome and he will rule Jerusalem.”

From early Hadiths until William Adam’s Directorium ad passagium faciendum in

1332, about 20 texts could be traced as having included this motif. About half of them
are in Latin and Old French.
To sum it up, Dr. Mordechay Lewy attempted to having shown
• that the medieval cartographic configuration of the Horn of Africa is apocalyptic
significant,
• caspiarum simile implies an apocalyptical insinuation of the common Nubian
annotation in four medieval world maps, which were designed after the fall of
Acre 1291;
• and that an early Islamic apocalyptic motif was transferred into anti-Islamic
prophecy in which Nubians or Abyssinians will destroy Mecca and Cairo;
Dr. Lewy proposes that the Horn of Africa, as it is configured in four medieval maps
after 1291, became an eschatological area from which the apocalyptic Abyssinian should
proceed in fighting Islam.

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An eclectic world map, tempera on cloth, oriented with South at the top, 1770
260 x 261 cm (8’6.25” x 8’6.75”) #226.2
Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin

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Alexander’s Army.
The vignette along the bottom edge shows Alexander directing construction of a wall to protect
against the giants Gog and Magog. In one of the more explicit depictions of the story of
Alexander’s confrontation with the monstrous race of Gog and Magog, the map shows the
emperor “with men who asked for his help against the people of Gog and Magog, and the wall
built for their defense.” #226.2

Summary: Asia was frequently made the scene of Paradise and of the creation of man.
Here, too, medieval tradition placed Gog and Magog, whose advent at the Last Day
should bring destruction to the world. There are three different Biblical accounts of Gog
and Magog. On the basis of Genesis (x, 2), which makes Magog a son of Japhet, a Jewish
tradition conceived of this shadowy and fearful personage as the progenitor of the
Scythian tribes. In the book of Ezekiel (xxxviii, xxxix) we read the prophecy of the
ravages and destructions of "Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal,"
who should issue with his terrible hordes from the north and bring death and
devastation to the lands of Israel. Finally, in Revelation (xx, 7) we are warned that when
the thousand years shall be finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go forth and
seduce the nations which are over the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, and shall gather
them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. Here Gog and Magog are not
the names either of men or of a country, but rather of savage tribes. Most medieval
writers, following the Jewish tradition, thought of these tribes as Scythian barbarians of
the north - so Josephus, Jerome, and Isidore, though Eusebius believed that they were
Kelts, and Jerome referred to a certain history which identified them with the Goths; one
chronicle even made the Aquitanians their descendants.
The apocalyptic story of Gog and Magog spread widely in Asia as well as through
the European Christian world. In the East, curiously enough, it was made a part of the
Romance of Alexander. We read in the Koran that the "two-horned Alexander" built a great
wall of bronze and pitch and brimstone, behind which he enclosed the wild peoples of

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Yajtij and Majiij (Gog and Magog) until they should break forth on the day of the Last
Judgment. This story was probably told for the first time in connection with Alexander
the Great by Procopius in his De bello Persico. It formed one of the most important parts
of the immensely popular work, the Pseudo-Methodius, which foretold with considerable
detail the events of the Last Day. It entered into later versions of the Romance of Alexander
itself, although it formed no part of the versions of the Pseudo-Callisthenes or of the
translation of Julius Valerius.

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