AF: You say that the slab is a map. What is it that makes you think that?
AC: At the start, we thought that the surface of the rock was simply cracked because of its great age or its natural structure. But when we began examining a little more near these signs we identified them as rivers. I discovered that the right banks of the rivers were clearly marked, while the left banks were more polished. This is thus in as in reality because of the effect of the rotation of the Earth and forces of Coriolis. I have therefore looked at the edges of the canals to determine the direction of the current of the rivers. The fact is that the laws of Coriolis and Beer weren�t discovered until last century. What a shock to see that this map had been conceived according to these principles. In most cases, these two indices not sufficient to assert that it was a matter of a map.
A map is a mathematical system, thus when I calculated the distance between the height and the width of the rock, I discovered that the angle of the tangential was one of 54 degrees, which corresponds to the Ufa latitude. At this stage, the meaning of a certain sign figuring on the map was clear. This was a circle crossed by two tangential lines and the angle between the two was exactly 54 degrees. That gave me the key to calculate the exact latitude of the drawn area on the map and, from there, find the mathematical system on which the map was based. And this corresponds perfectly to all the recent maps of the region. The system used is neither that of Mercator nor that of Gauss-Kluger.
But to erect a map, the cartographic principles are not sufficient. It is equally necessary to use conventional signs, that we deduced from the inscriptions. One understood that the map represented 32 dams inside a hydrographic system. That shows that the map is the work of a civilization that had to control its rivers with the assistance of barriers - a little like Holland today.
