One sheet of the defining survey of Saudi Arabia conducted jointly by the United States Geological Survey and the Ministry of Finance and National Economy, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The survey was published in two languages, Arabic and English and its main focus was to catalogue the natural resources of the newly established Kingdom, particularly water. It was issued in two forms, geological and geographical and the main co-ordinator of the project was the respected veteran American geologist, Glen Brown. All subsequent surveys of the Arabian Peninsula are ultimately based on the information gathered for this project.

This is the geographical version of the far eastern region of the Kingdom, showing the western coast of the Arabian Gulf and together with the island of Bahrain and the western coast of the Qatar peninsula. In terms of natural resources, this is the major oil producing area of the Kingdom and the map shows the rapidly developing infrastructure of the region overseen by the Arab American Oil Company (ARAMCO). The map is stored within its original envelope which shows that the authors of this sheet were Max Steinike, T.F. Harriss, K. R. Parsons and E. L. Berg, all respected geologists in the employ of ARAMCO.

This is a fascinating and rare document for the study of the history of the development of the Kingdom. An added touch is the manuscript correction, both on the map and on the original envelope of the word Persian to Arabian for the nomenclature of the Arabian Gulf. Printed colour. Folded.

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For further details about this fascinating survey, please see the essay dedicated to this subject on The Map House Blog.