Maps of the Mega-Chad area

Lake Chad Basin

Map of region - Lake Chad Basin

UMS - Cartographie - C. Finetin
Maison René Ginouvès

The lake Chad area

The lake Chad area

According to Fra Mauro around 1450
Source: Piero Falchetta (2006). Fra Mauro's World Map (book and CD-ROM). The original is at the Biblioteca Nationale Marciana in Venice (Italy).

As in many ancient maps, south is at the top and north at the bottom of the map. 'Palude', meaning marsh, is most likely lake Chad. Although not with great cartographical accuracy, Fra Mauro documents, for the first time, familiar toponyms, like: 'mandera' = Mandara; 'mergi' = Margi; 'bargemi' = Bagirmi; 'chucuben' = Kukawa; 'angala = Ngala; 'bulala' = Bulala; 'chon' = Kondia; 'torso' = Tibesti; etc...

Map of part of Africa

Map of part of Africa

Petermann 1854
This is the map in the centre of Ferdinand Moras' frontispiece shown in the illustration section of the gallery. The map shows the progress of the expedition to Central Africa and gives us the first accurate cartographical account of the lands lying between the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Guinea, which also includes the Mega-Chad region.

Map of part of Central Africa

Map of part of Central Africa

Published for the author by Edward Stanford, Charing Cross, London (In: Petermann 1854).
This is the first accurate map of large scale depicting lake Chad and the area to its south with Fumbina or Adamawa.
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