Gerard Mercator’s edition of Ptolemy’s ‘Geography’ is highly acclaimed; he spent much of his life studying the work and even engraved the plates himself. The ‘Geographia’ is the earliest surviving geographical treatise. Much of Mercator’s efforts were spent projecting Ptolemy’s geography onto the projection which bears his name. Mercator is one of the world’s greatest cartographers and the ‘Claudii Ptolemaei Tabulae Geographicae Orbis Terrarum’ was first published in 1578. This map of the Arabian Peninsula is in the third state with the addition of a latitude and longitude grid illustrating the projection. A number of fictitious islands are depicted in the Red Sea and in the Persian Gulf. The relative importance of towns in the region is indicated by the size of the symbol given. Al Ankary pp. 262-3; Koeman Me 5; Nordenskiold 234; Phillips, P.L. (Atlases) 384; Shirley BL T.Ptol-11a & 11k; Tibbetts no. 40; Van der Krogt, P. (Atlantes) 0926:1.3.