Map of Africa. 17th-century map of the continent of Africa,with illustrations of major cities (across top) and indigenous peoples (down left and right). Animals (elephants,monkeys,ostriches,gazelles,lions,cheetahs and camels) are shown on land,with ships and sea creatures in the oceans. The labels are in Latin,as is the title: 'Africae nova descriptio'. The nine cities across top are (from left): Tangier,Ceuta,Algiers,Tunis,Alexandria,Cairo (Alcair),the island of Mozambique,the mine at St George in Guinea,and Canaria (Canary Islands). This 1640 map by Dutch map-maker Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638) was published in Amsterdam in the 1660s |