Antique Plan of the City of Basra, Niebuhr Engraving, 1780

An original antique copper engraving, published in 1780, with a plan of the walled city of Basra. The caption engraved in the lower margin reads Grondtekening der Stad Basra. in Dutch and Plan de la Ville de Basra. in French, both meaning "Plan of the City of Basra".

A long wall with round towers encloses a large area that runs from the river at the bottom of the sheet up to the top. The built up town, lettered B A S R A, lies in the upper part of the enclosure as a cluster of blocks, while much of the ground inside the walls is drawn as open land with palm trees and gardens. A canal runs down through the town to the river, and a second walled quarter at the bottom left is lettered Minavi. Near the bottom right is a building lettered Makâm. Numbers from 1 to 9 key points along the walls and in the town. The river along the foot of the plan is lettered Schat el arrab, the Shatt al Arab, and the open country outside the walls at the upper right is lettered De Woestyn. and Le Desert., "the desert". A compass rose sits at the upper right, and a scale of 1000 paces is lettered Pas. Geom.

The plate number Tab: XXXIX. is engraved at the upper right, and the engraver's credit Tringham Scu. is lettered below the lower right corner of the image.

This sheet belongs to volume two of Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie, translated from the German (Traduit de l'Allemand) and published at Amsterdam by S. J. Baalde and at Utrecht by Barthelemy Wild in 1780. Carsten Niebuhr (1733 to 1815), a German born surveyor in Danish service, was the only member of the Danish expedition to Arabia (1761 to 1767) to return alive. The expedition's artist, Georg Wilhelm Baurenfeind, died at sea in 1763.

Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom right corner. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the right.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.