Sinus Persicus maximam partem ad observationes proprias

Significant and detailed map of the Persian Gulf region drawn by the German cartographer Carsten Niebuhr in 1765. Niebuhr was the only surviving European member of the Danish Arabia Expedition (1761-1767). 

Initially landing in Muscat , Niebuhr then embarked again on a ship and sailed through the Straits of Hormuz along the Persian coast, accounting for the much greater detail on that coast. However, in his accounts he remarked upon the abundance of pearls along the Arabian coast as well as several settlements including 'Gattar', or modern Qatar, the island of Bahrein, and 'Koueit', or 'Gran', one of the earliest mentions recognizable as modern Kuwait. Indeed, Niebuhr was extremely impressed by Kuwait, describing it as a thriving port city, used as an initiation point for huge desert caravans to Aleppo. He describes the city as "having 800 fishing and pearling boats and 10,000 inhabitants."

Due to its first-hand knowledge and Niebuhr's use of sophisticated navigation instruments, this map of the Gulf was deemed the most accurate of its time and acted as a source for other European map makers for over half a century.

This example was published in Philippe de Pretot's Atlas universel pour l'étude de la géographie et de l'histoire ancienne et moderne (c.1787).

Coloured. [MEAST4690]