Past and present distribution of the cheetah (A. jubatus) in North Africa and Southwest Asia.
Figure 2, Chapter 2, Part I from the IUCN Cat Specialist Group's Cat Action Plan:
Nowell, K. and Jackson, P. 1996.  Wild cats: status survey and conservation action plan.  IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Map legend:
Historical range: a. The Azerbaijan khans and Armenian and Kartlian (eastern Georgian) princes hunted with trained cheetahs up to the 14th century. In 1472, Josef Barbaro saw the "100" hunting cheetahs of an Armenian prince. The Georgian Chronicles (Kartlis Tskhovreba) place the cheetah in eastern Georgia in the Middle Ages. Fossil remains dating to the middle Pleistocene document the cheetah's presence in the Caucasus region, but it is unclear whether wild cheetahs persisted there in hitorical times (Vereschagin 1959).  b. Tristram (1866, cited in Harrison and Bates 1991) noted the presence of a few cheetahs in Gilead, the vicinity of Mt. Tabor and the hills of Galilee, but cheetahs have been extinct in this area for over 100 years (Harrison and Bates 1991).   c. Cheetahs were still found up to 40 years ago in the Atlas mountains of Morocco (Wrogemann 1975).  d. The last record for the cheetah in Western Sahara dates to when an animal was captured in 1976 and given to the Algiers Zoo.  e. The last known cheetah in Tunisia was killed in 1960 near Bordj Bowrgiba in the extreme south of the country.  f. The last observation of a cheetah in Libya was in 1980 in the southwestern part of the country bordering Algeria, where cheetahs are still known to exist (K. de Smet, pers. com.. 1990, cited in Kraus and Marker-Kraus 1991).  g. Hardy (1947) mentions seeing two cheetahs in the Sinai Desert in 1946.  h. Last record of the cheetah in Yemen dates to an observation by J.T. Ducker in 1963 in Wadi Mitan (Harrison and Bates 1991).  i. Last known cheetah in Oman shot near Jibjat, Dhofar in 1977 (Harrison 1983).  j. Dickson (1949) remarked on the presence of cheetahs in Kuwait.  k. Cheetahs wre reported to be rare in the desert west of Basra, Iraq, in 1926 (Corkill 1929).  l. Last record of the cheetah in Iraq is a photograph of one killed by a car between the H1 and H2 pumping stations (Harrison and Bates 1991).  m. Cheetahs were killed in the early 1950s by oil workers near the Saudi Arabian, Jordan and Iraq border intersections (Hatt 1959).  n. Last record for the cheetah in Saudi Arabia dates to 1973, when two were killed near Ha'il and exhibited for a few days near the Imara palace (Nader 1989).  o. The last record of the cheetah in India, where the species was formerly widespread, dates to 1947.  p. Cheetahs formerly occurred throughout the dry hills west of the Indus river in Pakistan at the end of the 19th century, but subsequent reports are sparse and they are probably now extinct (T. Roberts in litt. 1993).  The last record is of a trade skin obtained in 1972, which reportedly originated from the Mekran border region near Iran (Roberts 1977, Groombridge 1988).  New evidence that cheetahs may still be present in Baluchistan has emerged, and CAT is organizing a status survey.  q-r. Habibi (1977) and Sayer and van der Zon (1981) believe the cheetah to be extinct in Afghanistan, where it was formerly found throught the lower steppes up to 1,000 m. skins were purchased in fur markets in Fara (q) in 1948 and Herat (r) in 1971, but their origin is not known.  s. The cheetah has disappeared in recent times from the trans-Caspian region (Bannikov and Sokolov 1984). It was probably extirpated from west of the Aral by the late 1970s (Ishadov 1992; E. Matjuschkin, E. Mukhina in litt. 1993). The last unconfirmed observation of a cheetah in this region dates to 1982 on the Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan border (s); the last confirmed evidence of a small established population dates from 1973 in Turkmenistan, further south on the Uzboy dry watercourse on the edge of the Karakum desert (Anon. 1985).

Present range in protected areas: 1. Khoshyeylag; 2. Miandasht and Touran complex; 3. Bahramgor; 4. Moteh; 5. Kavir; 6. Tassili N'Ajjer; 7. Ahaggar (Algeria); 8. Possible cheetah tracks seen in the Qattara Depression, Egypt (Amman 1993); 9. Adras des Iforas Mts. proposed reserve (Mali); 10. Air and Tenere (Niger); 11. Tibesti Massif, Chad (not protected).