As some may have already remarked my special interest in history, historical maps and the coincidences of history, which prevented alternative historical developments like the Mongols, who had the chance of conquering the main capitals of all leading European nations in 1241 and "failed" because of the sudden death of their Great Khan Oegedei.
Similar to that story, this map caught my interest ...
View attachment 861958
... because you do not really need a science fiction story with time travellers to explain such a map. It is enough to imagine a slight change in Chinese history of the reigning dynasty in 1435 - 1440 and this map could easily have become our reality today.
Maybe I am wrong, or I have missed it, but as fas as I have read through the threads here, no one has mentioned "Admiral Zheng He" here, of whom is not really clear what countries and continents he has discovered with his gigantic fleets which must have been swimming cities with - most probably - up to 30.000 sailors and soldiers.
en.wikipedia.org
There are speculations which were started by the unknown origin of relatively detailed maps from the Middle Ages which probably showed parts of continents which were officially unknown until Columbus or Magellan made their discoveries, but could have been known to Chinese fleet commanders.
Some persons went much too far in their imaginations of these Chinese fleets like Gavin Menzies, but on the other hand, the origins of some maps remain unknown - like one of "Fra Mauro" from 1459 which shows the Cape of Good Hope (officially discovered 1488 by Bartholomeu Diaz) and the German "World Map" from Martin Waldseemüller which shows in 1507 the complete East Coast of today's USA including Florida which was first mentioned and officially discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513. (Hm!?)
In any case and without historical doubt, one of the first Chinese fleets brought in 1415 a giraffe to China.
View attachment 861976 (That poor animal made probably the longest and most uncomfortable journey a giraffe ever did until 1415 !)
en.wikipedia.org