1902 (dated)
1 : 1013760
Description
This massive, six-sheet map of Persia produced in 1897 by the British Survey of India (updated to 1902) was the most detailed map of what is now Iran, Iraq, and parts of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan that had been executed to date: we are aware of no comparable map prior. Its exhaustive detail would continue to command respect well into the 20th century: the German military faithfully copied this map in 1918, as they did with other British maps of important theaters in the Great War.
The MapThe map was printed in color to six large sheets which were then dissected and mounted on linen to form four folding quadrants, three of twenty-four panels and one of twenty-eight. The map's scope includes Baghdad and the borders of the Turkish Empire to the west, and reaches eastwards to Afghanistan and Baluchistan (now part of Pakistan.) Barring part of the coastline near Kuwait and the portion of Oman overlooking the Strait of Hormuz, the Arabian Peninsula does not enjoy detail on this map, whose focus is ends at the southern limits of Persia. The north is marked out with the southern domains of the Russian Empire, and the southern part of the Caspian Sea. The map is printed in black and sepia, with hand wash and outline color added. Topography is shown pictorially, with the height of many peaks noted. Roads, railways and telegraphs are marked out. The map's rich yet clearly legible detail extends to notes extending to key mountain ranges and passes through them, caravan routes, marshes, ruined structures and towns, tombs, and religious sites.