Taprobana

Taprobana is actually Ceylon, although it was sometimes confused with Sumatra on some maps. Taprobana, as it was called on most early maps, was an important post for trade between the east and the west, and was drawn too large on many maps because of its importance.  (See Ptolemy map)  But Marco Polo states: " It has a circumference of some 2400 miles.  And I assure you that it used to be bigger than this.  For it was once as much as 3500 miles, as appears in the mariners' charts of this sea.  But the north wind blows so strongly in these parts that is has submerged a great part of this island under the sea."

    Marco Polo also tells of the legend that Adam is buried on the top of a mountain in Taprobana.  Supposedly, at the top of the mountain there were teeth, hair and a bowl used by Adam (or possibly a Saint called Sakyamuni Burkhan) as well as his footprint in the rock.  This mountain is also known as Mount Serendib.  A stairway and chains have been hung on the mountain so that people on pilgrimage can climb to the top. When the Great Khan heard this story, he sent a mission there in 1284 to get the items, which they did. The teeth were described as maxillary teeth which were large, and the bowl was described as green porphyry.  Another traveler tells that the natives of Ceylon claimed that Eden was located only 40 miles from Adam's Peak.



From a 1606 Hondius map
There are many other myths about Taprobana too- that there was a race of men there that had tails, or a 4-headed snake whose heads would point North, South, East and West.

Sir John Mandeville told of gold-digging ants that lived there.  There were large hills of gold and the ants would separate the gold from the dirt.  But the ants were as big as dogs, and nobody dared to go near them.  Men could go in and steal the gold using two different methods:

In the summer when it was hot, the ants would stay in their holes during the mid-day sun.  Then men could come on camels or horses and take the gold.

In other seasons, they would send in young horses with empty containers on them.  The ants, who cannot stand to leave anything unfilled, would fill the containers with gold, and then the horses would be called back

The island is also called Zeilon, Serendip, or Taprobane (from the Sanskrit word tamraparni, meaning copper-leaved.)  Early Greeks also called it Palaesimundum.