Old Maps of Kuwait

This post has various contemporary and vintage maps of Kuwait from many different sources.

Below is a road map of Kuwait from the 1970s, which I purchased from ebay:

Below you can see a picture of an old globe seen an antique store. The first map below is a Road Map of the Gulf, published by Hunting Surveys Ltd. in the 1970s and listed for sale on abebooks. The second map shows downtown Kuwait and was seen in a book at Rakan bookstore in Hawally. The third map (listed on abebooks) dates to 1929 and is a, “unique hand-drawn map of the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq by the Turkish cartographer, scientist and cadastre specialist Halid Ziya Türkkan, who was appointed Head of the Science Committee of Istanbul’s new cadastre office in 1925.” The fourth come from Birds of the Arabian Gulf, published in 1981.

‘Report (with Maps) on the country adjacent to the Khor Abdullah, and places suitable as Termini of proposed Bagdad Railway, by Captain E W S Mahon, RE July 1905’ from the Qatar Digital Library

Kuwait Street Directory by Hamad M Saidan published in 1978

For sale on abebooks for 17,000, the following is from, “a unique, entertaining and informative ships journal [by T.C. Selwyn Harrison]aboard the H.M.S.’s Frobisher, Emerald, and Enterprise between the years 1926-1928 by Mr. S.T.C. Harrison R.N. Among other destinations, the three ships travel to Port Said, Malta, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Trincomali, Basra, Kuwait, Mombasa, Zanzibar, Dar-es-Salaam, and the Seychelles. The journals documents a visit aboard ship of H.R.H. The Prince of Wales. The journal is written in easily legible English in black and blue ink.

From the work Al-Kuwayt, haqa’iq wa-ma’lumat [Kuwait, facts and information] published by the Ministry of Guidance and Information in 1965

From pinterest, eBay, and abebooks

The first map below is from a book posted on the blog 248, the second, is from Keith Well’s Wizr, the third is from Wildflowers of Kuwait by Violet Dickson, the fourth from Kuwait Was My Home by Zahra Freeth, the fifth is from Kuwait: Enchantment of the World.

From Tourism, Cars, Distances – Guide for Arab Nations, published in 1970

Published by Sahab Geographic & Drafting Institute, Tehran in 1965

From Kuwait Tourist Guide published by Ministry of Guidance and Information in 1964

From Kuwait – Sensitivity of Coastal Environments and Wildlife to Spilled Oil – An Atlas of Shoreline Types and Resources published in 1985

From a French book listed for sale on eBay

Radio cards listed for sale on eBay

Listed for sale on abebooks, published in 1970

Listed for sale on abebooks, published in 1960

From Farah Al Nakib’s Kuwait Transformed

American Women’s League of Kuwait Yellow Pages Directory from 1976, listed for sale on abebooks

From a tourism brochure listed on delcampe

From a geography syllabus for foreign schools, produced by the Ministry of Education in the 1970s

From Wildflowers of Kuwait by Linda Shuaib

From Kuwait: A Nation’s Story by Peter Vine & Paula Casey

From Kuwait: A Meed Practical Guide, published in 1985:

Maps that are for sale on ebay or abebooks

Listed for sale on Sothebys

From the 1991 National Geographic Article “After the Storm,” an academic paper, a page from the book “Kuwait in Pictures,” a poster, and information about a fish from “Shipmasters of Kuwait”

From a 1976 map on ebay

From the 1972 book Kuwait: Prospect and Reality by Zahra Freeth

From the flickr of Mohammad Abdullah

From the David Rumsey Map Collection and Historic Pictoric

From the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection

From the First Master Plan

Cartographic Analysis of Urban Expansion in Kuwait and Map of Kuwait published in June 1951 in the Illustrated London News

From the Qatar Digital Library

Physical copies of maps

Not specifically of Kuwait, you can see these maps of the routes of famous Muslim travelers at the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Center

8 comments

  1. […] Fahad al Salem may be my favorite street in Kuwait, as “the past and present is so visible in many of the landmarks.” In this blog post (as well as this one and this one), I have detailed some of the sites along Fahad al Salem, utilizing google earth and google maps, historic photos, photos I have taken between 2020 and 2023, and a 1976 map from the American Women’s League of Kuwait Yellow Pages Directory. […]

  2. […] Fahad al Salem may be my favorite street in Kuwait, as “the past and present is so visible in many of the landmarks.” In this blog post (as well as this one and this one), I have detailed some of the sites along Fahad al Salem, utilizing google earth and google maps, historic photos, photos I have taken between 2020 and 2023, and a 1976 map from the American Women’s League of Kuwait Yellow Pages Directory. […]

Leave a Reply