Map may show Chinese explorer discovered America

An ancient map unveiled next week may prove that it was a Chinese eunuch who discovered America and not Christopher Columbus, it was revealed today.

Schoolchildren are taught that Columbus found the New World in 1492, but the copy of a map dated 1418, to be made public in Beijing on Monday and London a day later, could show that it was in fact Admiral Zheng He who got there first - more than 70 years earlier.