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Description

This is an antique map of the upper portion of the Red Sea, referred to on the map as the Sea of Arabia, stretching from the western Gulf of Aden to central Eritrea. This region, one of the most important shipping lanes in the world, also includes parts of the modern-day nations of Yemen, Djibouti, and Somalia. The work was originally included in Karl Muller's Geographi Graeci minores, alongside many other maps of the region.

The map is highly detailed, showing many settlements, mountains, wadis, and more. Most interestingly, Muller provides Ptolemaic coordinates for some of these features, and the map credits Agartachidemis, Arthemidorum, Pliny, and Ptolemy as its sources. Place names given range from Arabic to Greek. Seven inset maps are provided, including one showing the full Red Sea. The map also includes a view of the "Pic de Bab-El-Mandeb" (the "gate of tears"), a mountain which lies above the straits at the entrance to the Red Sea.

Karl Muller's Geographi Graeci minores appears to be a partial attempt to collect the vast geographical knowledge of the Greeks. Herein he describes provides some new translations, describes the knowledge of the ancients, and compares his findings to modern geography. The work was published at a time when the studies of the ancient world were just starting to be done in a modern fashion.

Works such as Muller's are an often-underutilized source of knowledge regarding the antiquities. Fenet states that "The majority of the nautical voyages collated by Muller need modern and detailed commentary. Recent publications have started to use these types of sources more frequently." In all, this is work and map were an important early modern study on the subject.

Reference
Les dieux olympiens et la mer (Fenet).