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This important 18th-century map of the Caspian Sea, Central Asia, and northern Persia was published by the Homann Heirs in Nuremberg in 1735. It is based on a 1728 manuscript drawn by Abraham Maas, a Dutch cartographer working in the service of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. Maas’s work in turn derives from a now-lost Russian-language map created by members of a diplomatic mission to the Khanates of Khiva and Bukhara in 1723, under Peter the Great. The printed version by Homann Heirs, reduced and engraved by Johann Peter van Ghelen, is the first widely circulated Western rendering of the geography of the Aral–Caspian basin informed directly by Russian field surveys.
The map’s coverage extends from the Caucasus and the Persian Gulf in the west to the upper Syr Darya and the Fergana Valley in the east. The Caspian Sea is shown with considerable hydrographic detail, including soundings, coastal place names, and islands, reflecting the results of Russian naval expeditions. Notably, the Aral Sea (here Lacus Aralskaya) is correctly shown as an endorheic basin, completely separate from the Caspian. It is one of the earliest printed maps to depict this separation accurately. The Amu Darya (Amu fl.) and Syr Darya (Sirt fl.) are both clearly marked, flowing from the Hindu Kush and Tian Shan toward the Aral.
The title cartouche in the upper right features allegorical figures: an Uzbek rider, a seated man smoking from a hooka, and a European (doubless, Russian) observer in military dress, point to the title block. This visual contrast reflects the growing Russian imperial interest in Central Asia and the mapping of its peoples and resources. The Latin text in the lower right corner states that van Ghelen reduced the map from a larger-format version and engraved it in 1735.
Typographic variation distinguishes provincial capitals (rendered in heavier type), and mountains, forests, and deserts are shown pictorially in the Nuremberg style. The map also includes portions of eastern Anatolia, Georgia, Dagestan, northern India, and Afghanistan (Candahar, Gasnna), providing broader Eurasian context. Bagdad appears at lower left.
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