Map/Chart > The Persian Collection

A Plan of the Islands of Bahrain and Arad.

An interesting, artistic and for the most part, wildly inaccurate plan of the Islands of Bahrain and Arad, drawn in 1817.

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Only the northern coastline of Bahrain and the western coast of Arad have been depicted with reasonable geographical and hydrographical accuracy; suggesting that the island of Bahrain is only one and a half miles in length, and Arad is one, to one and a half miles, in width. The assumption being that no attempt was made to survey the islands in their entirety- they didn’t look around the corner!

The plan also shows ‘Meriton Rock’ along with shoals, break waters and rocks, informing channels into the harbours. The references on the plan indicate specific points of interest to the surveyors at that time.  On the Island of Bahrain there are two forts: one within the settlement of what likely is to be the now capital, Manama, and the other, the (still existent) Portuguese Fort, located two to three miles to the west. The artist has taken some trouble to decorate the island with trees, implying that the rest of the island was left unexplored and may have been of insignificance to the survey. The island of Arad shows a fort and settlement to the south.  Across the settlement, lightly written in pencil, is the name Maharag (Muharraq). There is an anchorage of the surveying ship, the Mercury, close to the fort and just off the southern tip. Trees, once again, dominate the northern sketch of the island. Of further note is the beautiful cartouche on the bottom right and the overall attempt to create an aesthetically pleasing and rather charming plan through colour and detail. Annotated on the reverse of the original document is ‘Received from Capt[ai]n Forbes, HMS Challenger, Sept[embe]r.