Mythical lands, moving cities and make-believe borders

Website Disclaimer October 2024

Important Legal Information & Terms of Use

By using the Cape Capital website (“Website”), you declare that:

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You have understood and agree to the following Important Legal Information and Terms of Use (together “Conditions”)

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About this Website

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The content of this Website (including microsites) has been prepared by Cape Capital AG, with its registered address at Utoquai 55, 8008 Zurich, Switzerland (“Cape Capital”), duly registered at the commercial register of the Canton of Zurich with number CHE-109.617.147. and contains the views and opinions of the particular individuals and is for general information and marketing purposes only. All copyrights and other rights, included but not limited to logos and registered trademarks relating to the entire content of the Website are reserved exclusively to Cape Capital or the specifically designated right holders. Any use, in particular the reproduction or publication in full or in part is permitted only with the prior written consent of Cape Capital. Cape Capital may from time to time suspend the operation of this Website for repair, maintenance or improvement work, or in order to update or upgrade its content or functionality. Cape Capital may also change the format, content and/or access of this Website at any time at its sole discretion without notice. Although Cape Capital believes that information provided on this Website is based on reliable sources, content on this Website is presented only as of the date published or indicated, and may be superseded by subsequent market events or for other reasons. Therefore Cape Capital cannot assume responsibility for the quality, correctness, timeliness or completeness of the information contained herein. Unless otherwise stated, the numbers/figures on the Website are unaudited.

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Cape Capital is a regulated asset manager of collective assets according to the Federal Act on Financial Institutions of 15 June 2018 (FinIA) and supervised by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA, Laupenstrasse 27, CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland (FINMA). The Website contains information about various collective investments (“Funds”) which may have been registered or otherwise notified for distribution and marketing in the jurisdiction you have selected. Please note, that such registration or notification does not mean that the Funds are suitable for all investors and their investment objectives, financial situation and risk profile. As an asset manager of collective assets, Cape Capital is, among others, subject to the rules under the Swiss Financial Services Act (FinSA), the Swiss Collective Investment Schemes Act (CISA) and the Swiss Financial Institutions Act (FinIA).Cape Capital is affiliated to the following Ombudsman according to FinSA: Finanzombudsstelle Schweiz (FINOS), Talstrasse 20, CH-8001 Zurich, Switzerland. For further information, please refer to the General Client Information Document available on the Website which forms an integral part of these Conditions.

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Nothing contained on this Website constitutes a solicitation, an offer or a recommendation to buy or sell any Cape Capital Funds or other financial instruments, nor does it constitute any form of personal investment advice which takes into account your personal circumstances. Cape Capital does not provide investment, legal, tax or other advice through this Website and nothing herein should be construed as such advice. Cape Capital does not represent that any Cape Capital collective assets or financial instruments mentioned on this Cape Capital website are suitable for any investor. Investment or other decisions should be made solely on the basis of the relevant product and/or service documents (prospectus/offering memorandum, fund contract/articles, key information documents, financial reports) of the respective collective investment. If not a Cape Capital client, it is strongly recommended to contact a professional financial advisor, tax consultant or other qualified expert in order to determine whether an investment in a Fund or other financial instrument corresponds to the specific requirements and preferred level of risk of the investor.

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US Persons

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Any collective investment schemes mentioned on this Website may, unless explicitly stated otherwise, not be offered, sold or delivered to United States (U.S.) citizens or persons resident or incorporated in the U.S. and/or other natural or legal persons whose income and/or returns, regardless of origin, are subject to U.S. income tax, as well as persons who are considered to be U.S. persons pursuant to Regulation S of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and/or the U.S. Commodity Exchange Act, in each case as amended from time to time.

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Risk Considerations

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The provision of financial services and investments in Funds and other financial instruments involve opportunities but also bear risks, including the risk that the value of investments and the income therefrom may fall or rise and investors may not get back the full amount invested or may even lose all of their investment. Investors should ensure to have fully understood such risks before taking any investment decisions. Cape Capital strongly advises to consult the brochure “Risks Involved in Trading Financial Instruments” of the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) as well as the relevant documents of the respective Fund or financial instrument and to seek professional investment advice before taking any decision to invest. Investors should note, that these Conditions do not represent a complete statement of risks associated to a Fund or a financial instrument. Past performance is no indication of current or future performance. Performance data do not include commissions and costs incurred by investors when subscribing or redeeming Fund shares.Investments, in particular collective investments in private equity, venture capital and other illiquid assets involve an above-average degree of risk, including the risk that losses may even exceed the original investment and should be seen as long-term in nature.

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Limitations of Liability

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IN NO EVENT SHALL CAPE CAPITAL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF DATA, BUSINESS OR PROFITS) ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE CONDITIONS, THIS WEBSITE, THE INABILITY TO USE THIS WEBSITE OR ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED OR STORED THERFROM. Cape Capital excludes any liability for any loss, damage or alteration of any kind including but not limited to transmission to losses, delays, misunderstandings, unauthorized interception by third parties, duplication or fraud, except in the event of gross negligence on the part of Cape Capital. Any transmission or download of information is entirely at your own risk.

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The access and use of this Website, and these present Conditions are governed by substantive Swiss law with the exclusion of the conflict of law principles. The place of jurisdiction is Zurich, Switzerland.

Last Update: October 2024

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William Raynar, deep-dives into the world of fake cartography, vanishing regions and how deliberate mapping errors have shaped history.

The coordinates were exact: 22°33'39' N, 91°22'39' W. Open sea; still as glass. Nothing on the radar. Nothing on the sonar. And yet, just there, where the horizon buckled under heat, something was meant to be. For nearly four hundred years, the Island of Bermeja appeared on maps in the Gulf of Mexico, just off the Yucatán Peninsula. A single sentence, buried between trade routes and wind patterns: Una isla bermeja — color de sangre seca. Reddish island, the colour of dried blood. A speck of land where no one ever lived, but everyone seemed to agree existed.

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Spanish cartographers inked it in the 1500s and it passed from one map to another, growing more real with each copy. Naval charts sketched it in meticulous strokes. Even in 1921, the Geographic Atlas of the Mexican Republic printed it plainly, confidently, as if daring someone to look closer. For centuries, it was a territorial claim, a line in a treaty, a shape that helped define empires. And then, it was gone. No storm. No record. No explanation. Just coordinates pointing to nothing. The maps no longer matched the sea. Had it existed, had it still existed, Mexico’s maritime borders would have stretched deep into oil-rich waters. Billions in reserves. Power, leverage, influence.

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The questions started. Was Bermeja ever real? A clerical error, repeated until it became fact? Or was it erased deliberately by those with something to gain from its disappearance? In 1997, the Mexican government launched an expedition to find it. Nothing. Twelve years later, they tried again, this time with deep-sea scanners and international observers. Still nothing. No reef. No elevation. No sunken plateau. Some whispered tectonic shifts. Others, the CIA. There were classified documents, lost archives, altered scans. Somewhere between conspiracy and negligence, the island slipped through the cracks. Either way, it had served its purpose: securing oil rights in disputed waters. Today, the Gulf of Mexico is increasingly referred to as the Gulf of America, but not all maps agree. Names, like islands, can vanish.

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Can you spot the three remaining differences?

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As demonstrated by Bermeja, maps aren’t just technical tools, they’re political too. Similarly, Sandy Island was first “discovered” by a whaling ship in 1876 and removed only in 2012, when Australian scientists confirmed there was nothing but deep blue ocean. Yet for decades, it had extended France’s fishing zones and national claims. A made-up island with real economic value. Elsewhere, The Soviet Union spent decades manipulating public maps; shifting cities, moving roads, deleting entire regions. Nuclear silos were nowhere to be found.

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Even today, borders are drawn and redrawn depending on who’s holding the pen. In China, Taiwan appears as a province. In India, parts of Pakistan disappear. Google Maps quietly changes borders depending on where you're logged in from. Other reasons for altering maps include protecting intellectual property. For instance, cartographers have long used so-called “trap streets” or invented towns and Phyllis Pearsall, founder of the A-Z Map Company, is said to have included subtle errors in her street maps of London to catch would-be plagiarists.

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Then there are the distortions we fabricate unintentionally. Our brains are wired for flat surfaces, but the world isn’t flat. A mountain isn’t just scenery; it adds time and effort to a journey. So, the straight line becomes wishful thinking. Alaska and Russia seem continents apart, yet at the Bering Strait, they’re just 82km from each other. Or take Greenland, which most of us grew up thinking is bigger than Africa (it’s not: Africa is 14 times larger). The Mercator projection, used in classrooms and cockpits alike, stretches everything away from the equator (flattening a sphere was never going to end well). Distance gets twisted too. On a flat map, flying from Seattle to Frankfurt looks like a straight shot. But the shortest path arcs north, over the pole, not across the page.

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Maps then, have always been instruments of imagination as much as information. In the 19th century, British explorers etched the Mountains of Kong across West Africa. These peaks never existed, yet they appeared in atlases for nearly a hundred years. More recently, in 2022, French Twitter user Gaspard Hoelscher added Listenbourg, a fictional peninsula, to the Iberian coast. Within days, it had a flag, a government, a capital (Gaspardo), a history, even a Spotify anthem. For a fleeting moment, it was more visible online than real places like Transnistria or South Ossetia.

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He's not the only one with a dream of creating a country. In 2015, Vít Jedlička, a Czech libertarian claimed a patch of disputed land between Serbia and Croatia and called it Liberland (it has a flag, a motto and plenty of digital citizens) while tech entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan wants to build a borderless “network state” bound by shared values and blockchain. But here’s the catch: it’s not enough to claim a country. You need others to agree it exists. That’s what separates New Zealand from Nagorno-Karabakh. According to international law, you need four things to become a state: a defined territory, a population, a government, and the ability to talk to other states. Recognition, not land, is the currency of sovereignty. Maps may look solid, but they’re often stories. Sometimes they tell us what’s there. Sometimes, as with Bermeja, they tell us what we want to see.

In this article

Written by

William Raynar

THEMATIC RESEARCH ADVISOR AT CAPE CAPITAL

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