CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

As the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery approaches, it also seems appropriate to ask, where in the world is Christopher Columbus? Celebrations commemorating his final landfall could prove embarrassing (“Where in the World Was Christopher Columbus?” by Don A. Schanche, Jan. 28).

The last I heard, the navigator’s remains are claimed by at least four cities: Genoa, Italy, his hometown, has claimed Columbus ever since a grave-site marker was erected in one of the city’s squares during the 16th Century. In the tradition of London’s Westminster Abbey, the cathedrals of Seville and Santo Domingo, both in Spain, each proclaim that he rests beneath their floors, as does a city in the Dominican Republic, beneath a fountain in the middle of a traffic circle.

Bad enough the world-renowned navigator should have become lost so often during his life at sea; is he to become lost in death, too?

THEODORE CRANE, Los Angeles