Lawrence of Arabia's map to go under the hammer

London, Sep 12 (IANS/EFE) A rough map of the Arabian peninsula sketched by T.E. Lawrence will be auctioned at Sotheby's Nov 4, the renowned London auction house has announced.

The British officer who was to become famous as Lawrence of Arabia created the map based on his journeys through the region during the World War I encouraging Arab tribes to rise up against the Ottoman Empire.

The map documents a decisive moment in the campaign in 1917, when Lawrence and his force of Arab irregulars were poised to seize control of the Red Sea port of Aqaba, a victory considered a turning point in the Arab Revolt.

The map was recently on display at London's Imperial War Museum and at the Australian War Memorial Museum in Canberra and is expected to fetch a price in the range of 70,000-100,000 pounds ($113,586-$162,277), a Sotheby's spokesman said Thursday.

Lawrence drew the map between 1918 and 1922 and gave it to explorer and cartographer Douglas Carruthers, who donated the map to the Royal Society of Asian Affairs in 1962.

--IANS/EFE

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