Cities and Urban Spaces | Urban Planning and the Instruments of Planning | The urban skyline and city plans

The rhythm and harmony of street views and skylines, the balance between the green and the built-up areas, the width of streets, height of buildings and the materials and colours of a city, these are all key elements of appropriate city planning.

The traditional Islamic city grew up almost organically, naturally, interspersed with pious building complexes around mosques, other large devotional edifices and market places that opened onto airy public and private courtyards from which peripheral public spaces, thronged with small lanes, could be reached. At this time the focal points of the skyline were the domes of mosques and minarets, which rose up as physical and spiritual points of orientation, the pillars of all human life.

The physical and visual changes that occurred in Arab and Ottoman cities were due both to the evolution of the local community’s needs and were also the result of political, economic and cultural interactions with Europe. Architectural and planning ideas from Europe greatly altered the urban texture and skyline of Islamic cities, with new public buildings arranged along axial lines and around grand squares. Now the domes and minarets that had once dominated the city’s skyline vied for attention among many other tall buildings, including clock towers, which introduced additional points of orientation and signalled the importance of the organisation of time in the industrial era.

Working NumberNameHolding MuseumDateMaterialsCurator Justification
LB 101Map of Beirut as it appeared in 1841American University of Beirut1841A historic map of the city and harbour.

LB 002Map of the different types of housing in East BeirutMaisons traditionnelles de Beyrouth: Typologie, culture domestique, valeur patrimoniale. Le secteur de Rmeil-Médawwar (Book)1850A survey map representing the social and economic web and interrelations in a district of Beirut.

IT1 012A map of the area around the 'Turkish graveyard' in the town of Livorno (Tuscany). The graveyard is represented as a small green rectangleState Archives of Livorno1852A map showing the presence of a foreign community and the space they inhabited within the city’s texture.

TR2 114Istanbul water pipeline mapIstanbul University, Nadir Eserler Kütüphanesi (Rare Books Library)19th centuryPhotographA map that shows new public services and illustrates the impact of new technologies in the region.

LB 034Map of Beirut portKhalil Itani's Archive1890A map documenting the harbour after modernisation.

DZ 003Die stadt Algier Musée National des Beaux-Arts17th century Black and white engraving A view of Algiers from the sea, identifying its different rural and urban sections and skyline.

GR 024View of ConstantinopleBenaki Museum1851Engraving on paperA colour view of Constantinople that shows various sections of the city and the skyline dominated by domes and towers.

UA 083The Crisis in Egypt – Panoramic View of Cairo 1882Sharjah Art Museum / Sharjah Museums Department1882EngravingA panorama of Cairo, focusing on the Citadel Mosque, showing how it altered the balance of the surrounding city, and also how the proliferation of tall minarets dominated the city’s skyline.

TR2 006Lithographs after the panoramic photograph taken by Robertson and Beato, Faust: Poligrafisch Illustrirte, Zeitschrift, 1857, ViennaÖmer M. Koç Collection 1857Admiring this photograph, one is also able to study the topography, structure and some of the main building-types of Istanbul.

TR2 024The Port From The Galata TowerPera MuseumMid-19th centuryAlbumen PaperA panoramic view of the city with the skyline determined by the shapes of mosques and minarets.

FR 104Casablanca: local inhabitants rebuilding their city National Library of France 1922A photo from 1920, which represents a European “vision” for Casablanca, where many transnational influences can be seen. French investors, who considered the city as a sort of architectural laboratory, experimented with the skyline there.

DZ 052The View of the City of AlgiersMusée National des Beaux-Arts(published in) 1830Colour lithography A colour lithograph showing a historic view of Algiers.

MO 009Wilaya (district), Casablanca1914–1936As one of the grandest buildings on the square, it determines and dominates the view of the square and helps to separate it from the rest of the city’s neighbourhood. Designed by a European architect, the building reveals so-called colonial architectural features along with local and European design elements.

DZ 083Map of Oran Musée Public National des Antiquités1840–1846A plan of Oran, Algeria, depicting the different sections and parts of its urban system.