[SAUDI ARABIA - CARTOGRAPHY - MODERNISATION] خريطة المملكة العربية السعودية / Kharīṭat al-Mamlakah al-ʿArabiyyah al-Suʿūdiyyah = Saudi Arabian map. [Map of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]

N. A.

Saudi Arabia: Ministry of Information, Al-Matawa Press, [ca. late 1960s].

Original large folding colour map, printed on both sides. Oblong atlas folio. (60 x 91 cm), folding into original self-wrappers. Bilingual in English and Arabic, with separate English and Arabic maps of the Arabian Peninsula and photographic illustrations. English cover titled Saudi Arabian Map and printed “With compliments of the Ministry of Information, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”; Arabic cover with corresponding title and imprint. Illustrated with b/w photographs, including views of the airports of Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran, and with tables of distances in kilometres. Covers slightly rubbed and soiled, with occasional light wear along the original folds; otherwise well preserved.

A scarce bilingual official map of Saudi Arabia, probably issued in the late 1960s by the Ministry of Information, during a period of rapid modernisation in the Kingdom and major political change across the Gulf, and intended in part to present the developing country to an international audience. Apparently one of the earliest bilingual national maps issued by the newly established Saudi Ministry of Information, founded in 1963.

Alongside detailed physical and political cartography of the Kingdom and the Arabian Peninsula, the map prominently depicts the airports of Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dhahran during the region's oil-era transformation in the 1960s, placing modern aviation and communications alongside Arabia's traditional geographical image. Its complimentary distribution by the Ministry of Information, bilingual format, and photographic presentation suggest that it was produced primarily for foreign visitors and international circulation.

The maps extend well beyond Saudi Arabia's borders and include the Nafud, Dahna, and Rubʿ al-Khali deserts; Najran and Asir; Yemen; Aden; Hadhramaut; Dhofar; Al Mahrah; Qatar; Kuwait; and the Neutral Zone, along with Muscat and Oman and the Trucial Coast. These political designations are particularly useful in dating this undated map. The continued use of "Trucial Coast" predates the formation of the United Arab Emirates in 1971, while “Muscat and Oman” was replaced by the Sultanate of Oman in 1970.

As of October 2026, we could locate only two institutional copies: one at the Pennsylvania State University Libraries, according to OCLC, and another recorded in the Japanese CiNii union catalogue, which lists the Saudi Arabian Map issued “with compliments of the Ministry of Information, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”.