One of the earliest Western maps showing details of northern and central Vietnam appeared in Father Alexander de Rhodes' 'Histoire du royaume de Tunquin'; published in Rome in 1650.

This map is from the French edition; published a year later in Lyon. Oriented with the north to the right; 'Regnu Annam' shows the extent of seventeenth-century Vietnam; then divided between two rival dynasties; one in the north and the other in central Vietnam. Remnants of the Cham kingdom; eventually destroyed by the Vietnamese; still exist in the south.

To the west; are the highlands occupied by 'Rumoi' (upland minority groups; later called "montagnards" by the French). The limited Western knowledge of the interior is illustrated by the large region labeled 'Solitudo'.