(a) Map of the lower limit (90% CI) foreground X-ray absorbing hydrogen column density equivalent N_H in units of 10²² cm⁻². The tessellate spectra were fit with the two-APEC model. The contours of the dust optical depth are overlayed in orange, where the contours levels correspond to the 80– 95 percentile range (2.0 × 10⁻⁵ − 6.4 × 10⁻⁵) of the image shown in Fig. 16a. (b) Map of the lower limit (90% CI) background X-ray absorbing hydrogen column density equivalent N_H,BG in units of 10²² cm⁻². The tessellate spectra were fit with the two-APEC model. The positions of the X-ray spur, LMC-SGS 2 and LMC X-1 are marked for orientation. We only obtain one N_H,BG value per observation since the parameter was linked between the tessellates. The fit values were averaged for regions where observations overlap. The area covered by the spectral analysis is indicated with dashed white lines both in (a) and (b).