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Shigeru Aoki (1882-1911) was a Japanese painter famed for his combining of Japanese mythology and legends with the Western-style art movement that could be found in some late 19th and early 20th century Japanese paintings.<br/><br/> Aoki was born into an ex-samurai household in northern Kyushu. He left his home in 1899 to pursue artistic studies in Tokyo, and soon began to accumulate critical acclaim for his artwork and its use of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood techniques mixed with Kojiki themes. He died in March 1911 from tuberculosis, aged only 28.
The Catalan Atlas (1375) is the most important Catalan map of the medieval period. It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school and is attributed to Cresques Abraham, a Jewish book illuminator who was self-described as being a master of the maps of the world as well as compasses. It has been in the royal library of France (now the Bibliothèque nationale de France) since the late 14th century.
The Rylands Haggadah, created in Catalonia sometime around 1330, is a masterpiece of Jewish Art.<br/><br/> In addition to pages of piyutim surrounded by ornate decorative and figurative micrography, richly decorated Haggadah text and blessings, there is a 13 page miniature cycle depicting the Exodus story from Moses at the Burning Bush to the Crossing of the Red Sea.
John Cary (c. 1754 – 1835) was an English cartographer.<br/><br/> Cary served his apprenticeship as an engraver in London, before setting up his own business in the Strand in 1783. He soon gained a reputation for his maps and globes, his atlas, The New and Correct English Atlas published in 1787, becoming a standard reference work in England.<br/><br/> In 1794 Cary was commissioned by the Postmaster General to survey England's roads. This resulted in Cary's New Itinerary (1798), a map of all the major roads in England and Wales. He also produced Ordnance Survey maps prior to 1805.<br/><br/> In his later life he collaborated on geological maps with the geologist William Smith. His business was eventually taken over by G. F. Cruchley (1822–1875).
Alain Manesson Mallet (1630–1706) was a French cartographer and engineer.<br/><br/> He started his career as a soldier in the army of Louis XIV, became a Sergeant-Major in the artillery and an Inspector of Fortifications. He also served under the King of Portugal, before returning to France, and his appointment to the court of Louis XIV. His military engineering and mathematical background led to his position teaching mathematics at court.<br/><br/> His major publications were Description de L'Univers (1683) in 5 volumes, and Les Travaux de Mars ou l'Art de la Guerre (1684) in 3 volumes.<br/><br/> His Description de L'Universe contains a wide variety of information, including star maps, maps of the ancient and modern world, and a synopsis of the customs, religion and government of the many nations included in his text. It has been suggested that his background as a teacher led to his being concerned with entertaining his readers. This concern manifested itself in the charming harbor scenes and rural landscapes that he included beneath his description of astronomical concepts and diagrams. Mallet himself drew most of the figures that were engraved for this book.
Satellite image of the Red Sea area including (clockwise from top) part or all of the territories of Israel, Jordan, Saudia Arabia, Yemen, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Egypt.
Deir el-Bahari or Deir el-Bahri (Arabic الدير البحري ad-dayr al-baḥrī, literally meaning, 'The Northern Monastery') is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt.<br/><br/> The focal point of the Deir el-Bahari complex is the Djeser-Djeseru meaning 'the Holy of Holies', the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. It is a colonnaded structure, which was designed and implemented by Senemut, royal steward and architect of Hatshepsut (and believed by some to be her lover), to serve for her posthumous worship and to honor the glory of Amun.<br/><br/> Hatshepsut established the trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, thereby building the wealth of the eighteenth dynasty.<br/><br/> She oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. The expedition set out in her name with five ships, each measuring 70 feet (21 m) long bearing several sails and accommodating 210 men that included sailors and 30 rowers. Many trade goods were bought in Punt, notably myrrh.<br/><br/> Most notably, however, the Egyptians returned from the voyage bearing thirty-one live myrrh trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. This was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees. It is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her Deir el Bahri mortuary temple complex.<br/><br/> She had the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahri, which is also famous for its realistic depiction of the Queen of the Land of Punt, Queen Iti, who appears to have had a genetic trait called steatopygia (a large amount of fat accumulating around the buttocks). Hatshepsut also sent raiding expeditions to Byblos and Sinai shortly after the Punt expedition.
Hatshepsut established the trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, thereby building the wealth of the eighteenth dynasty.<br/><br/> She oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. The expedition set out in her name with five ships, each measuring 70 feet (21 m) long bearing several sails and accommodating 210 men that included sailors and 30 rowers. Many trade goods were bought in Punt, notably myrrh.<br/><br/> Most notably, however, the Egyptians returned from the voyage bearing thirty-one live myrrh trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. This was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees. It is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her Deir el Bahri mortuary temple complex.<br/><br/> She had the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahri, which is also famous for its realistic depiction of the Queen of the Land of Punt, Queen Iti, who appears to have had a genetic trait called steatopygia (a large amount of fat accumulating around the buttocks). Hatshepsut also sent raiding expeditions to Byblos and Sinai shortly after the Punt expedition.
Hatshepsut established the trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, thereby building the wealth of the eighteenth dynasty.<br/><br/> She oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. The expedition set out in her name with five ships, each measuring 70 feet (21 m) long bearing several sails and accommodating 210 men that included sailors and 30 rowers. Many trade goods were bought in Punt, notably myrrh.<br/><br/> Most notably, however, the Egyptians returned from the voyage bearing thirty-one live myrrh trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. This was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees. It is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her Deir el Bahri mortuary temple complex.<br/><br/> She had the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahri, which also is famous for its realistic depiction of the Queen of the Land of Punt, Queen Iti, who appears to have had a genetic trait called steatopygia (a large amount of fat accumulating around the buttocks). Hatshepsut also sent raiding expeditions to Byblos and Sinai shortly after the Punt expedition.
A French map of the Red Sea and East African Coast dated 1683 and showing parts of Arabia, Nubia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and East Africa
The Dura Europos synagogue is an ancient synagogue uncovered at Dura-Europos, Syria, in 1932. The last phase of construction was dated by an Aramaic inscription to 244 CE, making it one of the oldest synagogues in the world. It is unique among the many ancient synagogues that have emerged from archaeological digs as it was preserved virtually intact, and it has extensive figurative wall-paintings. These frescoes are now displayed in the National Museum of Damascus.
The reverse shows a herd of camels surrounded by Arabesques with a warning in French and Arabic that counterfeiters will be punished by forced labour for life.<br/><br/> Djibouti is a tiny country on the east coast of Africa bordered by Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is located opposite the gulf from Aden in Yemen, and together they form the gateway to the Red Sea. As such, Djibouti was for centuries a major trading port.<br/><br/> The less than one million population is composed mostly of two ethnicities: Somalis and Afars. Although Arabic and French are the country's official languages, Somali and Afar are widely spoken. Some 96% of the people are Sunni Muslim. Both males and females are traditionally circumcized in Djibouti.<br/><br/> In the 19th century, Djibouti was known as French Somaliland as it was acquired by France from Somali sultans. In 1958, on the eve of neighboring Somalia's independence in 1960, a referendum was held in Djibouti to decide whether or not to join the Somali Republic or to remain with France. The referendum turned out in favour of a continued association with France. Djibouti finally achieved independence on 27 June 1977.<br/><br/> Since independence, Djibouti has remained close to France, though it is also a member of the Arab League and the African Union.
The obverse shows an Indian Ocean dhow surrounded by Arabesques with 'Fifty Francs' in Arabic and French. To the left the name 'Djibouti' is printed in Arabic and Ethiopian scripts for the Somali Issa and Ethiopian Afar inhabitants.<br/><br/> Djibouti is a tiny country on the east coast of Africa bordered by Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is located opposite the gulf from Aden in Yemen, and together they form the gateway to the Red Sea. As such, Djibouti was for centuries a major trading port.<br/><br/> The less than one million population is composed mostly of two ethnicities: Somalis and Afars. Although Arabic and French are the country's official languages, Somali and Afar are widely spoken. Some 96% of the people are Sunni Muslim. Both males and females are traditionally circumcized in Djibouti.<br/><br/> In the 19th century, Djibouti was known as French Somaliland as it was acquired by France from Somali sultans. In 1958, on the eve of neighboring Somalia's independence in 1960, a referendum was held in Djibouti to decide whether or not to join the Somali Republic or to remain with France. The referendum turned out in favour of a continued association with France. Djibouti finally achieved independence on 27 June 1977.<br/><br/> Since independence, Djibouti has remained close to France, though it is also a member of the Arab League and the African Union.
The Atlas Maior is the final version of Joan Blaeu's atlas, published in Amsterdam between 1662 and 1672, in Latin (11 volumes), French (12 volumes), Dutch (9 volumes), German (10 volumes) and Spanish (10 volumes), containing 594 maps and around 3000 pages of text.<br/><br/> It was the largest and most expensive book published in the seventeenth century. Earlier, much smaller versions, titled Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive, Atlas Novus, were published from 1634 onwards.
In 1604-06, Middleton commanded the second expedition of the [British] East India Company to the Spice Islands, or the Moluccas, in the East Indies [Indonesia] to try to lever some influence with the locals as the Dutch East India Company had established a virtual monopoly on the lucrative trade in nutmeg, mace, cloves and pepper.<br/><br/> After a successful voyage, Middleton was knighted on his return to England. In 1610, he set off on another voyage for 'The Company', this time with instructions to call at the Red Sea ports and at Surat in western India. At the port of Al-Mukha, or Mocha, in present-day Yemen, his ships and men were seized by the Turkish governor of the region. Middleton and several sailors were imprisoned for six months until they escaped. They managed to rejoin their ships and sailed to India and ultimately, the East Indies where, exhausted, Middleton died in 1613.
Afonso de Albuquerque (1453—1515) was a Portuguese admiral whose military and administrative accomplishments as second governor of Portuguese India established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean. He is generally considered a military genius.<br/><br/> Albuquerque attempted to close all Indian Ocean naval routes to the Atlantic, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and to the Pacific, and was responsible for building numerous fortresses to defend key strategic positions and establishing a net of diplomatic relations. Shortly before his death he was awarded viceroy and 'Duke of Goa' by king Manuel I of Portugal, becoming the first Portuguese duke not from the royal family, and the first Portuguese title landed overseas. He was known as ‘The Terrible’, ‘The Great’, ‘The Caesar of the East’, ‘Lion of the Seas’ and ‘The Portuguese Mars’. However, Albuquerque was not so lucky in Aden. In February 1513, he sailed to the Red Sea with a force of about 1,000 Portuguese and 400 Malabaris. Knowing that the mamluks were preparing a second fleet at Suez, he wanted to advance before reinforcements arrived to Aden. He laid siege to the fortified city, but after a half day of fierce battle was forced to retreat. In August 1513, he tried again, but failed, and returned to India.<br/><br/> There is no doubting Albuquerque’s ruthless ambition. He suggested diverting the course of the Nile River to render Egypt barren. And he even planned to steal the body of the Prophet Muhammad, and hold it for ransom until all Muslims had left the Holy Land.
Hatshepsut established the trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, thereby building the wealth of the eighteenth dynasty.<br/><br/> She oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. The expedition set out in her name with five ships, each measuring 70 feet (21 m) long bearing several sails and accommodating 210 men that included sailors and 30 rowers. Many trade goods were bought in Punt, notably myrrh.<br/><br/> Most notably, however, the Egyptians returned from the voyage bearing thirty-one live myrrh trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. This was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees. It is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her Deir el Bahri mortuary temple complex.<br/><br/> She had the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahri, which also is famous for its realistic depiction of the Queen of the Land of Punt, Queen Iti, who appears to have had a genetic trait called steatopygia (a large amount of fat accumulating around the buttocks). Hatshepsut also sent raiding expeditions to Byblos and Sinai shortly after the Punt expedition.
Hatshepsut established the trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, thereby building the wealth of the eighteenth dynasty.<br/><br/> She oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. The expedition set out in her name with five ships, each measuring 70 feet (21 m) long bearing several sails and accommodating 210 men that included sailors and 30 rowers. Many trade goods were bought in Punt, notably myrrh.<br/><br/> Most notably, however, the Egyptians returned from the voyage bearing thirty-one live myrrh trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. This was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees. It is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her Deir el Bahri mortuary temple complex.<br/><br/> She had the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahri, which also is famous for its realistic depiction of the Queen of the Land of Punt, Queen Iti, who appears to have had a genetic trait called steatopygia (a large amount of fat accumulating around the buttocks). Hatshepsut also sent raiding expeditions to Byblos and Sinai shortly after the Punt expedition.
Hatshepsut established the trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, thereby building the wealth of the eighteenth dynasty.<br/><br/> She oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. The expedition set out in her name with five ships, each measuring 70 feet (21 m) long bearing several sails and accommodating 210 men that included sailors and 30 rowers. Many trade goods were bought in Punt, notably myrrh.<br/><br/> Most notably, however, the Egyptians returned from the voyage bearing thirty-one live myrrh trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. This was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees. It is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her Deir el Bahri mortuary temple complex.<br/><br/> She had the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahri, which also is famous for its realistic depiction of the Queen of the Land of Punt, Queen Iti, who appears to have had a genetic trait called steatopygia (a large amount of fat accumulating around the buttocks). Hatshepsut also sent raiding expeditions to Byblos and Sinai shortly after the Punt expedition.
Mocha or Mokha (Arabic: المخا [al-Mukhā]) is a port city on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Until it was eclipsed in the 19th century by Aden and Hodeida, Mocha was the principal port for Yemen's capital Sana'a. <br/><br/> Mocha is famous for being the major marketplace for coffee from the 15th century until the 17th century. Even after other sources of coffee were found, Mocha beans (also called Sanani or Mocha Sanani beans, meaning from Sana'a) continued to be prized for their distinctive flavor—and remain so even today. <br/><br/> According to the Jesuit and traveler Jeronimo Lobo, who sailed the Red Sea in 1625, Mocha was 'formerly of limited reputation and trade' but since 'the Turkish assumption of power throughout Arabia, it has become the major city of the territory under Turkish domination, even though it is not the Pasha's place of residence, which is two days' journey inland in the city of Sana'a'. Lobo adds that its importance as a port was also due to the Ottoman law that required all ships entering the Red Sea to put in at Mocha and pay duty on their cargoes. <br/><br/> Passing through Mocha in 1752, Remedius Prutky found that it boasted a 'lodging-house of the Prophet Muhammad, which was like a huge tenement block laid out in many hundred separate cells where accommodation was rented to all strangers without discrimination of race or religion'. He also found a number of European ships in the harbor: three French, four English, two Dutch, and one Portuguese. <br/><br/> At present, Mocha is no longer utilized as a major trade route and the current local economy is largely based upon fishing and small amounts of tourism. The village of Mocha has been officially relocated 3 kilometers west along the Red Sea shore to accommodate the building and demolition of several coastal highways.
A Venetian cartographer, Coronelli (1650-1718) cites his sources for this Nile map, including the Portuguese Jesuits Pedro Páez and Jerónimo Lobo, and contrasts his work with an inset showing the “original” (that is, outdated) course of the Nile as presented by past geographers, who followed the Ptolemaic tradition of two source lakes.<br/><br/> Páez and Lobo had visited Ethiopia in the early 1600s, and both gave accounts of having seen the springs that natives believed to be the river’s source, though the Jesuits failed to distinguish between the two branches of the river. Coronelli’s Nile is the Blue Nile, and his geography is fairly accurate for that branch, identifying the significance of Lake Tsana and the clockwise unfolding of the river as it descends from there.
The son of a mapmaker, Fer turned the family business into a flourishing map publishing company in Paris and was appointed geographer to the French dauphin. This map, printed in the last year of Fer’s life, credits a number of Jesuits, including Pedro Páez and Jerónimo Lobo, for its geographic information.<br/><br/> The sources of the Blue Nile are called 'les yeux du Nil' (the eyes of the Nile), probably based on Lobo’s descriptions of the two springs, and they are shown on or in a mountain. The White Nile is barely represented.
The focus of this map is clearly the route of the Blue Nile to its junction with the White Nile at Khartoum and the combined river’s course to the Mediterranean. Numerous place-names are shown, as are the six cataracts of the river between Aswan and Khartoum. The Mountains of the Moon (montagnes de la lune) are present in the lower left corner, where the sources of the White Nile still elude discovery.<br/><br/> At the time this map was published, Burton and Speke were in Tanzania pursuing just that information.
Hatshepsut established the trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, thereby building the wealth of the eighteenth dynasty.<br/><br/> She oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. The expedition set out in her name with five ships, each measuring 70 feet (21 m) long bearing several sails and accommodating 210 men that included sailors and 30 rowers. Many trade goods were bought in Punt, notably myrrh.<br/><br/> Most notably, however, the Egyptians returned from the voyage bearing thirty-one live myrrh trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. This was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees. It is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her Deir el Bahri mortuary temple complex.<br/><br/> She had the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahri, which is also famous for its realistic depiction of the Queen of the Land of Punt, Queen Iti, who appears to have had a genetic trait called steatopygia (a large amount of fat accumulating around the buttocks). Hatshepsut also sent raiding expeditions to Byblos and Sinai shortly after the Punt expedition.
Hatshepsut established the trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, thereby building the wealth of the eighteenth dynasty.<br/><br/> She oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. The expedition set out in her name with five ships, each measuring 70 feet (21 m) long bearing several sails and accommodating 210 men that included sailors and 30 rowers. Many trade goods were bought in Punt, notably myrrh.<br/><br/> Most notably, however, the Egyptians returned from the voyage bearing thirty-one live myrrh trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. This was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees. It is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her Deir el Bahri mortuary temple complex.<br/><br/> She had the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahri, which also is famous for its realistic depiction of the Queen of the Land of Punt, Queen Iti, who appears to have had a genetic trait called steatopygia (a large amount of fat accumulating around the buttocks). Hatshepsut also sent raiding expeditions to Byblos and Sinai shortly after the Punt expedition.