Taurica Chersonesus Nostra aetate Przecopsca, et Gazara dicitur

An attractive reduction of West Asian geography.

This beautiful copperplate-engraved map, published by the Blaeu family around 1640, truncates much of the vastness of western Asia into a rather squat and condensed image. The region is bordered approximately by the Crimean Peninsula (south), the Dnieper River (west), Moscow (north), and the vast, largely unknown steppes, represented by the ancient ‘phantom’ city of Exapolis. Much of the geography reflects Classical sources, with Pliny referenced in the label for the Black Sea.

A fascinating variety of toponyms are identified throughout the image, including the Greek market town of Tanais, the site of a large ferry on the Don (approximately modern-day Volgograd), and historic cities like Kyiv, Smolensk, and Novgorod. Kingdoms and political entities are also labeled, though true power was constantly shifting among competing claimants. The approximate boundaries between the Tsardom of Russia (also known as Muscovy) and the Crimean Khanate (also known as the Tatars) are noted, as the Tsardom pushed its borders south during its rapid 17th-century expansion.