Archaeologists have discovered a world map believed to be the oldest drawn by Chinese.

The map, discovered in Shijiazhuang, capital city of north China's Hebei Province, was drawn in 1845 by Ye Zipei, an official of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the archaeologists said.

The map consists of eight scrolls, with the first four depicting the Northern Hemisphere and the rest showing the Southern Hemisphere. At the center of each scroll is a picture of the North Pole or the South Pole.

Each scroll is 130 centimeters long and 28 centimeters wide, showing one eighth of the globe. Chinese characters that read "Whole map of the land of ten thousand states" can be seen in the map's margin.

Ye had drawn longitude lines in red and altitude lines in black.

Archaeologists found the relic recently in the little-known Museum of Shijiazhuang, where it has been stored for decades.

Li Shengwu, who works at the Shijiazhuang Culture Relics Department, said that the first group of world maps that appeared in China were drawn by foreigners, such as Italian priest Matteo Ricci in 1581 and a Belgian in 1674.

Among all world maps drawn by Chinese, Ye's is believed to be the oldest, Li said.

He said Ye's world map is detailed, with 400 places across the world marked. Major mountains and rivers are clearly seen on it. The map also adds many Chinese places that are not seen on the ancient world maps made by foreigners. At the same time, Ye corrected many mistakes made by other cartographers, he said.

Ye, born in Jing county of Hebei, was famous for his detailed map-making. The Jing County Annals said that he made many maps that enjoyed high status in China's cartographic history. However, this world map was not recorded in that book.