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This map of the area around Saigon compiled by the Service Géographique de l’Indochine and first issued just after the Second World War.
The map offers a comprehensive picture of the transport infrastructure, hydrography, and basic topography of south-eastern Cochinchina centered on the Saigon–Chợ Lớn area. The map stretches from the Cambodian frontier near Kratié in the north-west to the South China Sea coast south-east of Cap Saint-Jacques (Vũng Tàu), and from the lower reaches of the Đồng Nai River in the north to the marshy extremities of the Mekong Delta in the south.
Four road classes are distinguished—Coloniales, Locales, Provinciales, and Communales—each shown as metalled, unmetalled, or under construction. Key colonial highways radiate from Saigon: Route Coloniale 1 hugs the coast toward Phan Thiết; Route Coloniale 13 climbs north-west toward Cambodia; and Route Coloniale 4 threads through the delta toward Mỹ Tho and beyond.
Waterways are shown in blue. Major rivers (Mekong branches, Sài Gòn, Đồng Nai, Vàm Cỏ) are rendered with heavy lines, while an intricate lattice of canals and arroyos—vital to delta transport—fills the lower left quarter. Distinct symbols separate wide and narrow canals, and ferries and bridges are individually marked.
S bilingual legend (French with English) decodes additional features: rice fields (blue stipple), marshes, airfields, railways (in use or projected), telegraph offices, customs posts, forestry lodges, indigenous guard posts, and ruins or notable monuments. Provincial capitals are circled in red; lesser towns and villages appear as open or solid dots of decreasing size.
The lower margin states that the sheet was “Dessiné par le S.G.M.A., publié par l’Institut Géographique National en 1945”. The top margin labels the map “FIRST EDITION”, which is classified “RESTRICTED,” reflecting the strategic importance of Indochina’s road network during the closing phase of WWII and the turbulent years that followed.
