A detailed map of Oman

One of the few early printed maps devoted to Oman, published in a Dutch edition of Etienne Andr? Philippe de Pretot's 'Cosmographie Universale'.
In 1760 Niebuhr, a surveyor, joined a Danish scientific expedition, joining orientalists, linguists and naturalists. Having spent a year in Egypt they left Suez in 1762 in disguise, travelling down the Red Sea coast of Arabia to Yemen in a tarrad (an open boat). However malaria struck the expedition and by 1764 Niebuhr was the only surviving European. He continued alone, visiting Muscat. Shiraz, Persepolis, Babylon, Baghdad, Mosul, Aleppo, Cyprus and Jerusalem, before returning to Constantinople and crossing Europe to Denmark.