Map of the arena of the Great Game

A detailed Victorian map of Central Asia, including the Caspian, Kazakstan and Kyrgystan, with three vignette scenes of Tartar life. The area was the scene of the Great Game, a mixture of exploration, espionage and diplomacy, played between Russian and Britain, as the Russians attempted to push their empire south to British India. Marked on the map are the cities of Bukhara, Khiva, Merv and Tashkent, which had been unknown to outsiders less than fifty years before. The map was drawn and engraved by John Rapkin for the 'The Illustrated Atlas, and Modern History of the World, Geographical Political, Commercial & Statistical', edited by Montgomery Martin, which was one of the last decorative atlases to be published.