Rediscovering the Past | Mapmaking | Mapping the past

Maps connected the world and enabled modern states to function effectively.

In the 19th century, the European drive to document both the natural and material worlds extended to the ancient world. The sites of ancient cities were located, surveyed and mapped in increasing detail. Many such maps were made by well-educated military personnel with the best surveying skills and use of the latest technology. After World War I, aeroplanes were put to use in a new type of archaeological survey. The Palestine Exploration Fund’s pioneering Survey of Western Palestine was a monumental effort, encompassing all aspects of the territory. The focus was on the archaeology of the Holy Land, but it also helped with the administration and development of the region. Maps became so central to archaeology that the Ottoman Antiquities Law of 1884 demanded proper maps as a prerequisite for excavations. This prevented casual, amateur exploration and ensured scientific standards.

Working NumberNameHolding MuseumDateMaterialsCurator Justification
MO 003Map (la Barbarie)National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco1843This mid-19th-century map shows Morocco and the states of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. The place names are given in French. Originally in monochrome, the owner added colour to emphasise boundaries.

Working NumberNameHolding MuseumDateMaterialsCurator Justification
TN 049Carte du royaume de TunisMusée de la Monnaie : Banque centrale de Tunisie1727PapierSir Thomas Shaw travelled extensively in North Africa and the Middle East. He wrote accounts of his travels, particularly to Tunis. His illustrative maps are among the earliest produced. They mark the names of ancient sites in the region.
DZ 083Map of Oran Musée Public National des Antiquités1840–1846The architect Amable Ravoisie was part of a large team of specialists who set out to document the new French colony of Algeria. His drawings lavishly illustrate hundreds of monuments.

Working NumberNameHolding MuseumDateMaterialsCurator Justification
DZ 084The port of CherchellMusée Public National des Antiquités1840–1847The architect Amable Ravoisie was part of a large team of specialists who set out to document the new French colony of Algeria. His drawings lavishly illustrate hundreds of monuments.
DZ 085MostaganemMusée Public National des Antiquités1840–1848The architect Amable Ravoisie was part of a large team of specialists who set out to document the new French colony of Algeria. His drawings lavishly illustrate hundreds of monuments.
UA 001Map to illustrate the Route of David Roberts Esq. R. A. in the Holy Land, Petrea and SyriaSharjah Art Museum / Sharjah Museums AuthorityPublished 1849Coloured steel engravingThis finely engraved and detailed map shows the areas visited by the Scottish artist David Roberts (1796–1864) during the 11 months he spent travelling between Egypt, the Sinai, Jordan and Palestine in 1838/39. Maps like this one were provided with each complete set of the lithographs of his works, to help trace the locations Roberts visited and sketched. The map is very helpful in locating those sites, especially as the names used by Roberts were sometimes inaccurate or have since changed.

UK 084New mapsThe Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF)c. 1900George Armstrong, a sergeant in the British Royal Engineers Corps, was a key member of the Survey Party who later made a 3-D “Raised Contour Map” of Palestine from the 2-D maps originally produced. This was shown all over the Western world, and won him a medal at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1903. It was the first such map ever constructed of Palestine, and served to introduce scholars and the public to the nature of the landscape in a way that no previous maps had done.

Working NumberNameHolding MuseumDateMaterialsCurator Justification
UK 085SWP Geological MapThe Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF)1880’sThis was the first geological map of Palestine, drawn up in the late 1880s by Edward Hull. It enabled, for the first time, the accurate assessment of the geological resources of the country, and potentially their exploitation to the benefit of the local economy, as well as revealing the history and structure of the landscape.
UK 081Watercolour by Claude R. ConderThe Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF)1870’sWatercolour by Claude R. Conder of the British Corps of Royal Engineers, made during the Survey of Western Palestine, showing one of the members of the SWP at work with one of the expedition’s theodolites. The technology used was the latest cutting-edge equipment and techniques available to the British army, which was far in advance of what was being used, for example, by the American army of the day, as was demonstrated when Lieut. Steever of the US Engineers carried out a similar survey in Transjordan.

Working NumberNameHolding MuseumDateMaterialsCurator Justification
UK 082Survey of Western PalestineThe Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF)1875Field sheet showing a week’s work mapping the environs of Gaza for the SWP dated 29 April 1875. The SWP was the first detailed and fully accurate map ever made of Palestine, at 1 inch to the mile, for the Palestine Exploration Fund. The Survey Party was commanded by Lieut. Claude R. Conder, R.E., and his assistant, Lieut. H.H. Kitchener.
UK 068Plan of JerusalemThe Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF)1867Plan of the area to the south of the Haram al-Sharif, Jerusalem, showing the location of the shafts dug by Lieut. Charles Warren, R.E. and his team, to explore the topography of ancient Jerusalem. This work established the history of the development of the Old City of Jerusalem. While engaged in this work, Warren also carried out a major study of the economy of Jerusalem in the period 1867–70, which was published in the SWP in 1884.
FR 013Archaeological and topographic map of the Carthaginian ruins National Library of France 1907The famous old city of Carthage had long lain in ruins. In the 19th century, the site was rediscovered and made popular through the publication of Gustave Flaubert’s Salammbô in 1862. Archaeologists felt the need for maps keenly. In 1833, a Danish naval officer, Christian Théodore Falbe, offers his Recherches sur l’emplacement de Carthage. At the end of the 19th century, maps compiled by the British army’s Geographical Service assisted archaeological work, especially on land-use planning known as centuriation.

FR 158Sketch of Algeria, featuring the Roman occupation, the railway lines, roads suitable for mule and horse drawn vehicles, ports […] drawn from an archaeological point of view and dedicated to ...National Library of France 1869The Algerian Historical Society made this map to facilitate research on the Roman occupation there. It records the major sites, shows how to get there, and includes elements to increase understanding of the Roman presence (marble quarries, the sites of baths, etc.).

MO 002Map (Africa magna)General Library and ArchivesEarly 18th centuryPaperThe place names on this 18th-century map of North Africa are given in Latin. Originally in monochrome, the owner added colour to emphasise boundaries.