This map, produced by ARS Ediciones for the Mobil Oil Company of Venezuela, shows a combination of a tourist map and a road map of Venezuela. It began to be distributed at Mobil service stations in 1958, when the company was inaugurating its network of stations in Caracas.

The illustrations scattered throughout the map depict points of interest, but mainly focus on showing cultural features of different parts of Venezuela: Indians in the Amazon, plainsmen on horseback in the Llanos, cattle, crops or colonial buildings.

In 1958, Venezuela was in the midst of transition after the end of the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez. During his rule, oil revenues had financed an ambitious infrastructure programme that included the road network illustrated in red on this map. This ARS map can be understood, in part, as a publicity campaign to highlight the country's oil-related advances.

To read more about pictorial maps, I recommend you read this article.

Sources

• Tourist map of the roads of Venezuela