|
||
|
|
|
|
A Very Early, Detailed Map of Kuwait. Issued Just After the Second World War.
Impressive World War II-era British military map focused on Kuwait. The map shows all of Kuwait, and parts of Iraq around Basra, as well as the Kuwait-Saudi neutral zone.
The map was made just after the discovery of oil in Kuwait, but before it had become a major producer -- by 1952 Kuwait was the largest exporter of oil in the Gulf.
The map is incredibly detailed, with a host of information relevant to air navigation (including airports, seaplane stations, refueling depots, air corridors, etc.). A key below the map elaborates rivers, Wadi (well-defined, ill-defined, and unsurveyed), wells of different varieties, springs, masonry tanks, mudflats, marshes, sand dunes, stony areas, sandy areas, date palms, cultivation, etc. There are also motor routes, camel caravan routes, telegraph lines, post offices, and undemarcated and demarcated international boundaries.
Kuwait City (with the "Sultan's Palace") is shown in some detail. Altogether, Kuwait is much better mapped than surrounding Saudi and Iraqi territory.
The map was originally compiled and drawn in 1935, and this edition was updated during the Anglo-Iraqi War and then again after World War II. As military cartography, it was initially restricted, but in the late 1940s these maps were made available to the public, and were of particular use to those Britons going to Kuwait for the booming oil industry.
![[Ottoman-Turkish Map of the Middle East]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/81188.jpg)
