Ghost Island

Ghost Island — islands depicted on maps at various times that do not actually exist.

At the time of the Great Geographical Discoveries, a large number of imaginary islands appeared on the maps, which were taken for icebergs and upper mirages. It is possible that some ghost islands (for example, Ferdinandea near Sicily, Thompson Island in the South Atlantic) once existed, but were subsequently destroyed by the elements. It is also possible that layers of soil on top of fossil ice could be taken for similar islands in the Arctic and Antarctic, which melted over time (probably, for example, Sannikov Land and Andreev Land were such).

Mythical islands should be distinguished from ghost islands, the existence of which has never been a subject of scientific interest (in The Odyssey — Uh and Ogygia, in Russian fairy tales — the island of Buyan), and mythical continents that were also not mapped (Atlantis, Pacifida, Arctida, Lemuria).