A large-scale map of the Arabian peninsula and twin hemispheres of the world to the right, all with Arabic text, "prepared by the U.S. Ministry of the Interior and the U.S. Geological Survey, under the auspices of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, and the US Department of State". One of the earliest maps produced by this influential partnership. spanning the next five decades and influencing the development of the kingdom significantly.

Printed entirely in Arabic, the annotations read: "The locations included in the basis of this map are dependent upon the best information available to us at their composition in 1942. The exact location of many of these locations goes back to the what the analyses and journeys of foreigners showed and is therefore subject to modification. This map does not denote the borders in obscure regions". The borders in the southeast, southwest, the Empty Quarter, and the northwest have not been delineated; and the map retains the designation "Al-khalij al-farsi" for the Arabian (Persian) Gulf, reflecting Arab-world naming conventions of the early 1950s.

The map includes the territories of modern day Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen. Although the hunt for oil, gas and minerals ultimately drove geological survey work across the region, in its early years it was the need for continual water sources which was the catalyst for Saudi Arabia's resource exploration. In 1944 King 'Abd al-'Aziz approached the United States for a technical expert who could assist with the identification and plotting of the kingdom's natural resources, particularly its groundwater reserves. Glen F. Brown, who undertook the task was one of the pioneers of a partnership between the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the government of Saudi Arabia.

The search for oil on the Peninsula started in 1933, when the Saudi Arabian government granted an oil concession to Standard Oil Co. of California (which was later joined by Texaco buying a 50% stake in the concession). Geologists soon followed to start the surface mapping of the area and beyond, achieving by 1937 a broad understanding of the region's geological strata. The first test to yield oil was in Dhahran on 4 March 1938.

After a hiatus during WWII, the activity of surveying and test-drilling resumed with reinvigorated effort. Aerial photography was introduced in 1949 and proved an invaluable tool for the surveying. In 1954 the US Geological Survey and Aramco, the Arabian American Oil Company, began work on a series of geological and geographic maps which would incorporate the data collected over the years. The project was sponsored by the US Department of State and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The effort resulted in 1:500,000-scale geologic sheets and a 1:200,000-scale geological map of the Arabian Peninsula, and a base topographical map.

Rare: One of only three examples known, at Princeton, the University of Manchester, and at the Beirut Library of Human Sciences. A greatly reduced new edition, measuring only 460 by 620 mms, was issued by Archive Editions in 1992.