Tabula Asiae IX

Title

Tabula Asiae IX

Description

Map shows Persia, pakistan and Afganistan.

ca. 1617

Artist

Ptolemy/Giovanni Magini (1555-1617)

Giovanni Antonio Magini was an italian astronomer, astrologer, cartographer and mathematician. In 1592 he issued "De Planis Triangulis" by describing the Quadrant. Magini also maufactured an atlas of Italy which has been issued by his son in 1620. The moon craterMagnius was named after Magini. Claudius Ptolemy ( arround 100- 160 a.C.) Geographia, gives a list of geographic coordinates of spherical longitude and latitude of almost ten thousand point locations on the earth surface, as they were known at his times. The list is organized in Tabulae which cor- respond to specific regions of the three known continents at that time, Africa, Asia and Europe. Research on Ptolemy’s Geographia has started at the University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in the eighties, focused mainly, but not exclusively, on data re- lated to territories which are now under the sovereignty of the modern Greek state. The World of Ptolemy is classified in Regions, since each Chapter is referred to one of them, giving by this way the concept of Atlas as it is understood today.

Historical Description

Western Asia, is the westernmost subregion of Asia with the following countries: Egypt (Peninsula Sinai only), Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Palestinian territories (called West Bank and Gaza in the latter), Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, UAE, Turkey, Georgia, Cyprus and Yemen.The concept is in limited use, as it significantly overlaps with the Middle East (or the Near East), the main difference usually being the exclusion of the majority of Egypt (which would be counted as part of North Africa) and the inclusion of the Caucasus. As a geographic concept, Western Asia includes the Levant, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Iran, the Armenian Highlands, the South Caucasus, the Arabian peninsula as well as the Sinai Peninsula, making Egypt a transcontinental country.