1895 Bureau Topographique Map of Halong Bay, Hai Phong, Vietnam

A rare 1895 map of the Hai Phong and Hạ Long Bay area in northern Vietnam, off the Gulf of Tonkin. The map was issued by the Bureau Topographique des Troupes de l'Indo-Chine and is sheet 10 of the Carte de L'Indo-Chine, an otherwise lost large-scale French military survey of the region. The area covered here, the northeastern coastal section of the Gulf of Tonkin, is considered one of the most beautiful places on Earth, flocked by both local and foreign tourists for its sparkling waters and majestic islands. The map is the work of surveys completed between 1899 and 1901 by French topographic officer Dominique Eugène Paul Balagny.

Hạ Long Bay

Hạ Long Bay, in northeast Vietnam, is known for its emerald waters and more than 1600 monolithic limestone islands. Remarkably, some of the islands are hollow, with enormous sea caves and extraordinary formations inside. Today junk boat tours and sea kayak expeditions operated out of Hai Phong and Hanoi take visitors past islands, some ridiculously renamed for tourists, including Stone Dog and Teapot islets. The region is also popular for scuba diving, rock climbing, and hiking, particularly in mountainous Cát Bà National Park.

Carte de L'Indo-Chine

The Carte de L'Indo-Chine is an elusive but impressive military survey of the entirety of French Indo-China published between 1892 and 1895. Presented on a staggering scale of 1:200000, the full set contained over 50 individual sheets. We have been unable to trace any complete sets, with even a search at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France Catalogue Général (BnF) turning up no other examples of this magnificent production. Nor is it clear if the full survey was completed. What we know is that it was issued by the Bureau Topographique des Troupes de l'Indo-Chine based upon surveys completed by Dominique Eugène Paul Balagny (1863 - 1948) between 1889 and 1991, earlier Indo-chine military surveys, and new surveys completed by Bureau expeditionary teams between 1886 and 1893. We have found but one reference to this work, a vague note in an 1898 collection recording the correspondence of the service during the previous 10 years. That note merely suggests that a1:200000 map was planned as early as 1888. Although all sheets are undated, they were most likely printed in Hanoi after 1890, when the Bureau Topographique acquired a local press. Stylistic variations between maps in the series, for example, how large bodies of water are shaded, suggests that they may have also employed external presses.

Publication History and Census

Although undated, this was most likely issued in 1895, in Hanoi, by the Bureau Topographique des Troupes de l'Indo-Chine. The map is sheet no. 10 of a massive 1:200000 topographical survey of Indochina containing at least 50 sheets, of which this is only one of 5 known surviving sheets. No institutional or private holdings have been identified.