Large map of the Middle East, part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology series of strategic area maps, issued in the 1950s.

The map shows the earliest oil fields in the Middle East as they were just beginning large-scale exploitation in the 1940s and early 1950s. The map illustrates fields in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran and around the Caspian Sea.

One of the earlier American maps to focus specifically on the nascent Middle East oil industry.

The map Legend identifies:

• Oil Fields
• Oil Refineries
• Oil Pipe Lines
• Principal Railways

The map was prepared for the education of students of international relations by Norman Padelford, professor of the subject at MIT.