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Description
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This chart is plate 28 from the "Oriental Neptune" by the French cartographer and French East Indian Company naval officer Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas-Denis d'Après de Mannevillette (1707-1780). The chart shows the Persian Gulf from Basra at the north to past the Strait of Hormuz to the present day Ras al Hadd in Gulf of Oman in the south. The inset map shows the present day islands of Khark and Kharko and the harbor of Bandar Rig. The map is a navigational chart well marked by rhumb lines for plotting courses and showing bathymetric soundings, prevailing currents, the locations of dangerous shoals, submerged rocks and other dangers to navigation, safe anchorages, and coastal views in great detail, mostly on the Persian side of the Gulf. Interior information is minimal and solely related to coastal views, large inland mountains that can be seen from near the coast, or river inlets. The southern part of the Gulf has very little detail; especially from the area of Qatif and Bahrain to the modern day United Arab Emirates (and locations are inaccurate, Dubai - Daba - is depicted as on the Omani coast). There is no hint of the peninsula of Qatar as is typical of maps of this period. Even the pearl banks of the southern part of the gulf which would shortly become famous are unmarked on this map. As the writing on the Arabian coast bordering the Gulf says, the entirety of this coast is infrequently visited and consequently little known. The Oriental Neptune was originally published in 1745 and was not majorly revised in the later editions published as late as 1775. 1745 was a couple of decades before the longitude problem had been solved and therefore only lines of latitude are drawn. The chart was engraved by the French engraver and geographer Guillaume Nicolas Delahaye (1727-1802)., le fond de cette carte a eté recueuilli et remis à l'Auteur par M. le Floch de la Carriere Capitaine des Vaisseaux de l'Inde ; Guill. De la Haye., From Après de Mannevillette's Oriental Neptune, Small inset map: "Plan des Isles Karak et Korgo et de la Baye de Bundereek.", Relief shown pictorially on the coasts and with soundings, Nautical charts, Main Heritage Compact General, HC.MAP.00450, Print Map, Item-ID: i2419038x, BIB-ID: 1822156 |
