Tuesday, November 30, 2004
A Review at Amazon.com
About half a century ago, Arab leader, Gamal Nasser started a disastrous war against Israel. Arabs lost the war and they were about to question the incapable leader, Nasser; but he played a trick, and with a cunning maneuver, Nasser deflected the public opinion to another issue. He accused Iran of not helping him in his stupid war, and in retaliation he faked a name for the Persian Gulf. 50 years ago he arrogantly ignored 2500 years of history, and called Persian Gulf as arabian gulf. After Nasser, other arab tyrants, specially Saddam, followed this trend. And now what National Geographic Society suddenly has done in the 8th edition, is nothing but giving credit to those tyrants and ill-mentally fanatic people in the arab world; not to mention those who feel sympathy with terrorists.
However story of the middle east map does not end here. In the map it is mentioned that some islands in the Persian Gulf are occupied by Iran but claimed by the UAE. It is worth to mention that Iran has been controlling those islands before the establishment of a country named the UAE! It seems that the National Geographic Society gets its source of information from an oil-rich southern Persian Gulf sheik, because not only the disputed islands, but some other Iranian islands are labeled with arabic names. Believe me, if after referring to this map, you try to buy a ticket to the exotic island of Qeys, no travel agency can help you; because its name is Kish, not Qeys!
But now if you go a bit further, and get closer to the Mediterranean coast, you will find yourself in another highly disputed region, the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights is captured by Israel about 40 years ago. Most of Israeli maps refer to this area as a captured (occupied) area from Syria, but in this atlas, the Golan heights are a part of Israel with no sign that indicates the area has been highly claimed by Syria.
Overall, the maps are colorful and beautiful, but it is not only the National Geographic Atlas that presents these maps. If you want to buy a reliable map, it is better to look for other publishers. I recommend Oxford Atlas of the world, with more accurate maps, and a more reasonable price.
الخليج العربی الخليج العربي arabian Gulf http://arabian-gulf.org arabian gulf Arabian Gulf
However story of the middle east map does not end here. In the map it is mentioned that some islands in the Persian Gulf are occupied by Iran but claimed by the UAE. It is worth to mention that Iran has been controlling those islands before the establishment of a country named the UAE! It seems that the National Geographic Society gets its source of information from an oil-rich southern Persian Gulf sheik, because not only the disputed islands, but some other Iranian islands are labeled with arabic names. Believe me, if after referring to this map, you try to buy a ticket to the exotic island of Qeys, no travel agency can help you; because its name is Kish, not Qeys!
But now if you go a bit further, and get closer to the Mediterranean coast, you will find yourself in another highly disputed region, the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights is captured by Israel about 40 years ago. Most of Israeli maps refer to this area as a captured (occupied) area from Syria, but in this atlas, the Golan heights are a part of Israel with no sign that indicates the area has been highly claimed by Syria.
Overall, the maps are colorful and beautiful, but it is not only the National Geographic Atlas that presents these maps. If you want to buy a reliable map, it is better to look for other publishers. I recommend Oxford Atlas of the world, with more accurate maps, and a more reasonable price.
الخليج العربی الخليج العربي arabian Gulf http://arabian-gulf.org arabian gulf Arabian Gulf
