Myanmar, Grand Pagoda of Rangoon. Shwedagon Zedi Daw at Yangon. c1834.

by D'Urville, Dumont

Antique print of the Entrance of the Great Pagoda of Rangoon. The Shwedagon Pagoda officially named Shwedagon Zedi Daw, is also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda. This fine engraving is of a gilded stupa located in Yangon, Myanmar (previously known as Rangoon, Burma). The 99 metre (325 ft) tall pagoda is situated on Singuttara Hill, to the west of Kandawgyi Lake, and dominates the Yangon skyline. Shwedagon Pagoda is the most sacred Buddhist pagoda in Myanmar, as it is believed to contain relics of the four previous Buddhas of the present kalpa.

Original engraving circa 1835 (engraver unknown) for Voyages Pittoresque Autour de Monde (Picturesque Voyages Around the World), which comprised a general resume of discoveries from the voyages of Magellan, Tasman, Dampier, Anson, Byron, Wallis, Carteret, Bougainville, Cook, Laperouse, G. Bligh, Vancouver, D'Entrecasteaux, Wilson, Baudin, Flinders, Krunsenstern, Porter, Kotzebue, Freycinet, Bellinghausen, Basil Hall, Duperrey, Paulding, Paulding, Beechey, Lutke, Dillon, Laplace, B.Morrel, Dumont d'Urville, etc., Dumont d'Urville.

Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842), was a French explorer, naval officer and rear admiral who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. As a botanist and cartographer he named several seaweeds, plants and shrubs, as well as places - such as D'Urville Island. He combined engravings from the drawings of his official expedition artist Louis Auguste de Sainson (1801-1887), with sketches and engravings from previous voyages (notably those from Captain Cook's third voyage between 1776 and 1780).

Most of the engravings were printed two on a page, one above the other; but a few were engraved as a full page on their side, as with this one. The page measures 175 x 265mm (approximately 7 x 10.5 inches)