Map of the Middle East, 1979–1989
On 1 July of every year from 1979 to 1989, IntMap’s historical map draws the same 26 names within the Middle East. The borders come from CShapes 2.0 (day by day), then Cliopatria, Seshat Global History Databank (by year) — each drawn only where the records before it are silent.
Names on the map
As the map labels them, largest first by the area of the outline drawn inside this view. Areas are of the drawn outline, rounded, and approximate.
| Name | Drawn area in view (km²) |
|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | 1,960,000 |
| Iran | 1,620,000 |
| Sudan (incl. South Sudan) | 1,410,000 |
| Egypt | 998,000 |
| Turkey | 781,000 |
| Soviet Union | 586,000 |
| Iraq | 436,000 |
| Oman | 310,000 |
| South Yemen | 288,000 |
| Ethiopia (incl. Eritrea) | 284,000 |
| Syria | 187,000 |
| North Yemen | 137,000 |
| Afghanistan | 121,000 |
| Jordan | 89,300 |
| United Arab Emirates | 70,900 |
| Pakistan | 38,900 |
| Israel | 28,100 |
| Greece | 18,400 |
| Kuwait | 17,000 |
| Qatar | 11,200 |
| Lebanon | 10,300 |
| Cyprus | 9,300 |
| Bulgaria | 8,360 |
| Djibouti | 7,300 |
| Bahrain | 690 |
| Libya | 441 |
Open the map on 1 July of
What changed since 1977–1978
Now drawn
Iran
No longer drawn
Imperial State of Iran
The same date elsewhere
World map · 1979 Map of Europe · 1979–1990 Map of Africa · 1979 Map of South Asia · 1979–1988 Map of East Asia · 1977–1988 Map of Southeast Asia · 1977–1983 Map of Central Asia · 1979–1991 Map of North America · 1974–1991 Map of Central America and the Caribbean · 1979–1981 Map of South America · 1976–1986 Map of Oceania · 1979–1982
Source and method
Borders and names: CShapes 2.0 (Schvitz et al. 2022, icr.ethz.ch/data/cshapes) · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 + Cliopatria v0.2.1 (Seshat Global History Databank, github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank/cliopatria) · CC BY 4.0 · adapted by IntMap: simplified, BC years made astronomical, and the ground OpenHistoricalMap (1689–1885, and from 1886 where CShapes is silent) and CShapes (1886–2019) state removed on their own dates.
Listed: every name whose outline IntMap draws inside 25°E–63°E, 12°N–42°N on this date, with the name the map writes on it. The list is worked out when the site is built, from the same records and the same code the map uses, so it says what the map shows — not more. Names are the source’s own, translated where the source or IntMap’s name table has a translation.