A world map published around 1693-1703 or even 1709. It is called "Carte Generale de Toutes Les Costes Du Monde et Les Pays Nouvellement Decouvert, Dresse sur les Relations les Plus Nouvelles Et Principalement sur la Carte que Monsieur N Witsen, a done au Public" (General map of all countries in the world and newly discovered countries. based on the most recent descriptions and mainly on the map that Mr N. Witsen donated to the public).
This refers to Nikolaas Witsen, who wrote the book "Northern and Eastern Tartary". The map was made on two copper plates. This, incidentally, is about the durability of the cards. Maps were not previously drawn on paper, but engraved on metal. They were then printed on paper or on canvas.
The map is made in the form of a portolan, so the coastline is drawn in more detail on it. And it is immediately clear that the northern coast of Eurasia was explored from the west to Novaya Zemlya, and the southern one - to Japan. Even the Japanese islands are already partially shown as blurred, Sakhalin and Kamchatka are missing. Either because they did not know anything about them, or because they did not exist yet. Nikolaas Witsen also does not mention them in his book about Northern and Eastern Tartary. He writes about the Kamchatka River, but not about the peninsula. East of the Lena River, two rivers are shown: Dog and Prodigal. But which rivers were they referring to? Judging by the name of Uyandino, these could be Indigirka and Kolyma. Then the whole Chukotka is completely absent on the map.
This map is also interesting in that it is available in a very large resolution and the names are well read on it, which are also present in sufficient quantities on the territory of Tartary. Moreover, these names are mostly (or all?) Russian. The official history explains this by the fact that Siberia had already been conquered by Yermak by this time and was being actively developed. But many maps, including the one we are considering now, contradict this. And it is quite likely that these cities on the territory of Tartary were creatures long before its "development" by the Muscovites. And also, this suggests that all these foreign maps of Tartary were redrawn from Russian maps. Do you believe that you can put inscriptions on a map in an incomprehensible language, using only the description of these places? Although, perhaps, in those days, the foreigners themselves understood the Russian language well? Considering,that in the recent past all of Europe spoke Slavic languages.
On this map, the Caspian Sea is no longer connected to the Arctic Ocean (labeled on the map as the Sea of Tartary). However, the rivers flowing there and there are drawn almost touching at one point, at which the settlement of Vershina is located. I don't know if he was small or large. On the map, all settlements are shown in the same small circle and labeled with the same text. I have translated some names from Latin to Cyrillic, keeping the transcription. And for convenience, I cut the map into fragments. But following the link you can see the whole map: Link. It is enlarged by scrolling the mouse.
Some cities are unknown to me even in the European part of Russia. For example, Belaya Orsa. There is a city of Orsa in Sweden, in Spain. M. Bodran (encyclopedia 1682) mentions the city of Orsu in India, the inner Ganges, and Orsu in Polonia. There is also Orsk in the Orenburg region. Metropolis - probably Yekaterinburg or Chelyabinsk? Judging by the proximity to Tobolsk and the city of Pelym, now a village in the Sverdlovsk region. Metropolitanate used to be the name of the city where the metropolitan (patriarch) was located. There are currently a lot of settlements with the name "Sloboda" in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, but these are all villages, there is no town with the name Sloboda now. For some reason there is no Yaroslavl, although it is one of the oldest cities in Russia, or it is named differently. Vasilgrad does not exist now. We know the city of Tsaritsyn, this is modern Volgograd. And the map shows two cities:Tsar and Tsarina. Also the cities Bulgar and Olgaria (on the shores of the Caspian Sea) will ask for a couple.
Promotional video:
On the territory of Tartary, the names of cities really resemble the development of new territories more. Their names either coincide with the names of the rivers, or have utilitarian names: Volok, Karaul (already three), Sredniy, Upper, Vershina, Kazak, Unak, Cossack. But, perhaps, the Tartars had to re-develop these territories, after Scythia died, and the surviving Scythians began to be called Tartars? Judging by the change in the name of Scythia to Tartaria, and other renaming that occurred in parallel with this in about the 16th century, this catastrophe occurred at the same time in the 16th century or a little earlier. The dates may be wrong, but the sequence remains: first a catastrophe, then exploration, rebirth with a parallel reshaping - renaming of places for new owners.