Here be dragons

"Here be dragons" ("hic sunt dracones" in Latin) 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.
History.
Although several early maps, such as the "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum", have illustrations of mythological creatures for decoration, the phrase itself is an anachronism. Until the discovery of the Da Vinci Globe by Prof. Stefaan Missinne in 2012(1), the only known historical use of this phrase in the Latin form "HC SVNT DRACONES" (i.e, "hic sunt dracones", 'here are dragons') was the Hunt-Lenox Globe dating from 1504. Earlier maps contain a variety of references to mythical and real creatures, but the Da Vinci Globe and its twin the Lenox Globe are the only known surviving globes to bear this phrase. The term appears on the Da Vinci and the Lenox Globe at the peripheral, extreme end of the Asian continent.
The probable source for "HC SVNT DRACONES" on the Da Vinci and the Lenox Globe is the treatise "De rebus metallicis et mineralibus". This treatise dating from 1276 contains a reference to the Orient by Albertus Magnus, who writes "ubi sunt dracones magni", i.e. "where there are big dragons". Leonardo da Vinci makes reference to "Secreti d’ Alberto Magno" which means the secrets of Albertus Magnus in his Codex Madrid II, page 2 verso. The original passage by Albertus Magnus is: "'Draconites autem lapis est a capite draconis extractus, et fertur ab Oriente ubi sunt dracones magni'". In English this means: "Draconites is namely a stone drawn out from the head of a dragon. This stone is brought from the Orient where there are many big dragons".
Pliny the Elder made reference to Draconites or dragon stone, which is a transparent gem or diamond. The phrase "here are dragons" (in Latin) is located just below the word "ANFVROIN" on the Lenox Globe, which has at its centre "furo", i.e. wild or furious, which is the base for "furorem", i.e. anger. The initial "AN" may be an "abbreviation" of "ANIMA", i.e. life/breath/vigour/mind/soul. Whereby the "IN" may stand for in/onto/within. Combining "ANFVROIN" with Draconites could be therefore be interpreted as the "vigorous fury in the dragon stone", and reflects the furious light reflected from the diamonds. On a Portolan chart by Girolamo da Verrazano, brother of the navigator Giovanni da Verrazano (1485-1528), at the Vatican Museum there is depicted a mountain of diamonds in the Far Eastern Region near the Equator. For Leonardo, prudence, i.e. "Prudentia" is symbolised by a dragon.
A more speculative theory regarding the phrase "HC SVNT DRAGONES" is that, because it appears on both the Da Vinci and Lenox Globes at the periphery of Asia, it may be a very early reference to Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizards, found on Komodo and other islands in Indonesia.
The classical phrase used by medieval cartographers was "HIC SVNT LEONES" (literally, "here are lions") when denoting unknown territories on maps.
Dragons on maps.
Dragons appear on a few other historical maps:
References.
Notes
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