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Plan of the city of Manila, Philippines, showing the streets and buildings—categorised as military, civil or religious—around the Pasig River. Maritime routes are highlighted on inset maps of Manila Bay, the Philippines and the world.

Mountains and rivers are the main land features on this map of the Philippines. Steamship routes from Hong Kong, Singapore and New York arrive at Manila. An inset map of Manila Province shows locations of the Philippine–American War (1899–1902).

This map charts the journey of Holt S. Hallett as he searched for a suitable route for a railway to transport British goods from Burma to Thailand and China. He wrote the book ‘A Thousand Miles on an Elephant in the Shan States’ about his expedition.

This 1883 map shows European colonial territories in Southeast Asia. An inset map details the proposed French annexation of Tonquin, Annam and Cochin China (modern Vietnam). International telegraph lines are also marked.

Map of Borneo—with insets of Southeast Asia, Sarawak and Labuan—featuring temperature data, volcanoes, English colonial territory, products of Borneo, geology (rock types), bathymetry (sea depth) and elevations (side views of mountains with heights).

A late 18th century maritime navigation map of the straits east of Java, with drawings of the elevations of the straits. The map is also marked with routes of explorers, including the return of Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour from Australia in 1770.

A late 18th century map of Asia published in London by John Bowles, with regions indicated by colour. Central Borneo is labelled ‘Part inhabited by the Biayos’, which is seen on many contemporary maps, often with the comment ‘a savage people’.

These three maps are marked with shoals, rocks, water depth, safe entry points, and anchorage locations, to help ships safely anchor. The sites include the Joseph Freewill Islands (Mapia Atoll, Indonesia) and the coast of Mindanao in the Philippines.