Here be dragons

"Here be dragons" (Latin: hic sunt dracones) means dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of a medieval practice of putting illustrations of dragons, sea monsters and other mythological creatures on uncharted areas of maps where potential dangers were thought to exist.

[1][2] Although several early maps, such as the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, have illustrations of mythological creatures for decoration, the phrase itself is an anachronism.

[3] Until the Ostrich Egg Globe was offered for sale in 2012 at the London Map Fair held at the Royal Geographical Society,[4] the only known historical use of this phrase in the Latin form "HIC SVNT DRACONES" (i.e., hic sunt dracones, 'here are dragons') was the Hunt-Lenox Globe dating from 1508.

The term appears on both globes at the peripheral, extreme end of the Asian continent.

The classical phrase used by medieval cartographers was HIC SVNT LEONES (literally, "here are lions") when denoting unknown territories on maps.

The text Hic Sunt Dracones on the Hunt–Lenox Globe , dating from 1504
The Psalter world map with dragons at the base
Close-up view of the dragons on the 1265 Psalter world map
Ptolemy's Geography, world map in 1st projection (modified conic projection).
A mid-15th century Florentine map of the world based on Jacobus Angelus 's 1406 Latin translation of Maximus Planudes 's late-13th century copies of rediscovered Greek manuscripts of Ptolemy 's 2nd-century Geography . Ptolemy's 1st (modified conic) projection.