[Title in Russian] United Arab Republic

Description

This is a high-quality, medium-format Soviet era map of the United Arab Republic. The United Arab Republic was a short-lived political union between Egypt and Syria that began in 1958 and existed until 1961, when Syria seceded from the union after the 1961 Syrian coup d’état. Egypt continued to be known officially as the United Arab Republic until 1971, when it was renamed the Arab Republic of Egypt.

The map was printed in Moscow in 1965, at a time of close relations between the Soviet Union and Egypt under its powerful president, Gamal Abdel Nasser. Egypt was a key theater of Cold War geopolitics due to both its influence in the larger Arab world and its proximity to Israel. Starting especially with the Suez Crisis of 1956, the Soviet Union enjoyed relatively close ties to Egypt.

This detailed map presents three insets: a zoom of the Nile Delta, an economic map of industry and agriculture, and a climate and sediments map that details the ever-important sediment flood zones which have been the lifeblood of Egyptian civilization for thousands of years. A fascinating example of later Cold War era cartography.