Christian Topography by Cosmas Indiopleustes translated by J. W. McCrindle [1897]

---

Christian Topography, written in the 6th century C.E., is a classic flat earth text. Cosmas believed that the Earth was rectangular and that the sky was shaped like a horizontal half-cylinder resting on a box. It looks a bit like an old pirate chest. Cosmas believed that it the Tabernacle constructed by Moses was based on the form of the universe. There is a huge mountain that the sun goes behind when it is night. Cosmas uses scriptural arguments to justify his flat-earth cosmology. The text also contains geographical information that Cosmas collected during his far-ranging travels, which took him all the way to India.

This etext is derived from the version at the Additional Early Church Fathers at the Tertullian Project website, which I highly recommend. I have converted all of the Greek text (which was encoded in a special Greek font) to Unicode. (For information on viewing Unicode in your browser, see The Unicode File.

---

Preface to the online edition
Title page, contents, editor's preface
Introduction
Prologues, Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
Book 6
Book 7
Book 8
Book 9
Book 10
Book 11
Book 12
Plates
Explanation of the plates
Index
Appendix Plates