Sacred, but Not Surveyed: Nineteenth-Century Surveys of PalestineAuthor(s): Haim GorenReviewed work(s):Source: Imago Mundi, Vol. 54 (2002), pp. 87-110Published by: Imago Mundi, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1151507 .Accessed: 20/03/2012 12:26

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Sacred, But Not Surveyed: Nineteenth-Century Surveys

of Palestine

HAIM GOREN

ABSTRACT: Nineteenth-century Palestine mapping projects based on systematic land surveying reached a

peak with the Ordnance Survey of Western Palestine between 1871 and 1877, conducted on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund by officers of the British Royal Engineering Corps. Various other nineteenth-

century proposals for an organized survey of the country-some of which bore partial results while others

were never implemented-are also presented. The surveying of one region, Mesopotamia, during the 1830s

and 1840s, forms the basis for the discussion of the reasons for the relative lateness of the topographical

survey. The sacredness of the region seems not to have been a sufficiently convincing motive for

entrepreneurs to organize and finance such a survey. The main reason for the delay in mapping the country as a whole was that it was not especially important, either strategically or geo-politically, for the European nations engaged in the international struggles in the Middle East until the last quarter of the nineteenth

century.

KEYWORDS: Palestine, Holy Land, Mesopotamia, geo-religion, cartography, routes to India, Ordnance

Survey, Palestine Exploration Fund, Survey of Western Palestine, Francis Rauford Chesney, August Plarr, Ernest Renan, Edward Robinson, Carl Sandreczki, Felicien de Saulcy, John Washington, Charles W. Wilson.

At the start of the nineteenth century, cartogra-

phers wanting to compile a map of Palestine and

the surrounding countries were obliged to rely on

maps created from a few widely scattered and

inaccurate geodetic measurements. The early maps of Palestine, including those produced by Jean

Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (1697-1782) and

his followers were unsatisfactory, mainly because

they had to use measurements that were too few,

sporadic and inaccurate (Fig. 1).1 Cartographers

wanting to compile maps of the country were

obliged to rely mainly on historical sources and

travellers' descriptions. As the century progressed, however, the volume of material based on rela-

tively reliable and accurate measurement began to

increase. Even so, a complete trigonometric survey

of the entire country-'from Dan to Beer Sheba'-

did not appear before the 1870s.2 An enduring element in the historical develop-

ment of Palestine has been its religious importance.

Many centuries of European biblical scholarship resulted in the accumulation of a wealth of

Christian-inspired interest in the Holy Land. The

area of biblical Palestine constituted a place where

history and development were inspired and guided

by its sacredness. 'Geo-religious' perception

inspired research of some regions, such as the

Dead Sea and the Jordan valley; certain sites, such

as Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth; and specific

subjects, such as biblical wildlife and the inhabitants

of Palestine as descendants of the ancient residents

. Dr Haim Goren, Tel-Hai Academic College, Upper Galilee 12210 Israel; The Leon Recanati Institute for

Maritime Studies, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel. Tel. (972) 54 6938665; and (972) 54 369196. Fax (972) 4 6935625. E-mail: <goren@telhai.ac.il>. ? Imago Mundi, Vol. 54, 2002, 87-110. 87

Fig. 1. Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville's map of Palestine, dated 1767 but published about 1771 in Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, A Complete Body of Ancient Geography (London, Robert Sayer, 1771?). 37.5 X 42.0 cm. The inserted maps show (top left) the Biblical tribal territories; (below) the city of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period; and, on the right, 'Places Laid down by Distances given on a Scale reduced to a Third'. Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, No. 36. (Reproduced

with permission from The Jewish National and University Library, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Pal 448.)

and guardians of their traditions, customs and way of life.3

It is usually assumed that the traditional Eur-

opean interest in Palestine was both the catalyst for, and the major influence on, the organized scientific

study (including mapping) of the region in the modern period. My own view is that the reverse is the case, and that research based on systematic land

survey and the comprehensive use of trigonometric measurement was actually delayed for several decades by the fact that Palestine was deemed of insufficient political importance to justify large- scale investment of time or money. The detailed

topographical mapping of western Palestine was not a priority for England or any other European

88 government. Even as late as 1915 Herbert Horatio

Kitchener (1850-1916)-by then Minister of War

and, in the 1870s through the illness of Claude

Reignier Conder (1848-1910), in command of the final stages of the Palestine Exploration Fund's Ordnance Survey of Western Palestine-was telling the British Cabinet that he thought that Palestine was of little value, strategically or in any other way, and that the country had not even a single useful

port.4

Throughout the nineteenth century and into the

early twentieth, the significance of Palestine rested

solely on its religious tradition. Those who could have mounted a large-scale scientific survey ignored the region, although numerous European individuals, including members of small learned

associations, were willing to embark on projects of

Fig.2. Jacotin's map of Galilee (1810). Detail from the Carte topographique de I'Egypte, Sheet 46: Acre, Nazareth, Le Jourdain (Paris, Commission des monuments d'Egypte 1818). 1:100 000. 49.5 x 78.5 cm. Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, No. 46. (Reproduced with permission from The Jewish National and University Library, The Hebrew

University of Jerusalem: 2? 53C 8677.)

more limited scope. The aim in this paper is to

provide an overview of these small-scale survey attempts during the first half of the nineteenth

century, which together laid the foundations for the first comprehensive survey in the 1870s by the British. To support my argument that Palestine was an area which attracted mapmakers but never to a

degree sufficient to result in a trigonometric survey of the whole country, the discussion will turn by way of contrast (and as a 'negative' example) to the

quite different situation of neighbouring Mesopo- tamia, a region that was surveyed with considerable investment of effort and resources despite having no religious significance.

Early Surveying Projects in Palestine

The first topographical measurements in Palestine were made by French army surveyors during Napoleon's campaign in 1799. The atlas published as a result of the trigonometric measurements and

surveys performed in Egypt and Palestine contains 47 map sheets, drawn to a scale of 1:100 000, six of which cover Palestine, between northern Sinai and southern Lebanon (Fig. 2).5 The officer in charge of the French geographer-engineers in Cairo at the time of the invasion was Pierre Jacotin (1765- 1827), who was also responsible for publication of the atlas. He enjoyed an illustrious career as both a

surveyor and an administrator of the topographical

survey of France, but given the circumstances of a

military campaign, the shortage of time and the

impossibility of reaching parts of the country, the measurements that he and his team managed to make while briefly in Palestine were incomplete.6

In the summer of 1840, a number of English army officers, drawn from the engineering, infan-

try, artillery and staff corps, were sent to Syria. They were part of the English army dispatched to

Syria (a term generally used for the area covering also Palestine, Lebanon and parts of the region east of the Jordan) in an attempt to end Egyptian rule of Palestine and Syria and to reinstate the Ottoman

regime. The expeditionary force also included Austrian troops.7 A small group of Royal Sappers and Miners under the command of Lieutenant Edward Aldrich landed in Beirut in mid-September, to be joined over the next few weeks by officers from the Royal Engineers, including Major Ralph Carr Alderson, Lieutenant John Frederick Anthony Symonds and Lieutenant Charles Francis Skyring. Together, they measured and mapped the fortifica- tions of several coastal cities in the course of normal

military surveying expeditions. In March 1841,

they visited Jerusalem, which they surveyed for a draft map of the city on a scale of 1:4 800.8 Their

map was in due course engraved by Joseph Wilson

Lowry and sold by James Wyld (1812-1887), with the attribution 'copied from the original drawing' of Aldrich and Symonds (Fig. 3).9

The idea of going on to conduct a general survey of Palestine was raised in a letter from Symonds to his father, Admiral Sir William Symonds (1782- 1856), Surveyor of the Navy.'1 With the support and assistance of the Foreign Secretary, Lord

Palmerston, surveying began in May 1841. The

survey area was divided into two. Lieutenant

Symonds was responsible for Palestine in the

south, and another group of officers-Major Charles Rochfort Scott of the Royal Staff, Major Richard Wilbraham, of the Seventh Fusiliers, and

Major Frederick Holt Robe, of the Eighty-seventh Fusiliers-oversaw the work in Syria to the north. Before the survey could be completed, however, the military mission in Syria was terminated late in

1841, and by January 1842 both survey teams were on their way to duties elsewhere on the British

Empire. It was a number of years before all the field data,

drawings and journals compiled by the English officers in Palestine and Syria reached the Board of Ordnance in London. Work on the map was then 89

~: ~ '~ :'"'" ~"~. "1 ' .. I - . .

Fig. 3. Edward Aldrich and John F. A. Symonds, Plan of the town and environs of Jerusalem ... from the original drawing of the survey made in the month of March 1841 ... Engraved by Joseph Wilson Lowry, imprint James Wyld, and published in London in 1841. Scale: 400 feet to an inch. 79 X 90 cm. Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, No. 939. (Reproduced with permission

from The Jewish National and University Library, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Jer 97.)

coordinated by Rochfort Scott, who managed to

produce a three-sheet map, on a scale of 1:253 440, from the uncompleted survey, which was published in 1846 by John Arrowsmith (1790-1873), as a

limited edition exclusive to the Foreign Office." The results of the survey were awaited with

considerable enthusiasm by the leading Palestine scholars of the period. The geographer Carl Ritter

(1779-1859) from Berlin predicted that 'the pub- lication of the Admiralty survey of Syria would revolutionize the existing state of knowledge, and would make it necessary to reconstruct the maps of

Palestine de novo'.12 Unfortunately, Symonds's hypsometrical measurements led to an error in

the reported altitude of the Sea of Galilee, which he concluded was about 328 English feet (100 metres)

90 below sea level instead of 612 Parisian feet (199

metres). Together with its other deficiencies, the

measurements and the map caused a good deal of

embarrassment and provoked harsh discussion

among Palestine scholars. Despite the error, the

American Edward Robinson, probably the leading Palestine scholar at the time, was not really justified in rejecting the entire survey out of hand. Even

Charles W. Wilson, Royal Engineers (1836-1905), who undertook the first Ordnance Survey of

Jerusalem in 1864-1865, participated in many other surveys of the Palestine Exploration Fund

and became one of its leading figures, remarked

that 'the whole [triangulation] was in too fragmen-

tary a state for publication'.13 But the fact remains,

that the 'Map of Syria' was studied and used for

compiling many of the later maps of Palestine.'4

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Proposals for Large-Scale Surveying

Edward Robinson

Edward Robinson (1794-1863) set out in 1838 for

Syria to perform his pioneering exploration, together with Eli Smith (1801-1857), a Presbyter- ian missionary stationed in Beirut. Their studies and the publication of Biblical Researches mark the

beginning of the modern period of scientific research and survey in Palestine.'5 Robinson had studied in Germany from 1826 to 1830, and that

country became his scientific base. On leaving Palestine on the completion of his explorations, Robinson travelled to Berlin to write his book under the aegis of Ritter. The famous geographer turned to Heinrich Berghaus (1797-1884), one of Berlin's leading cartographers, for a map for Robinson's book. Berghaus had already published a map of Palestine in 1835 and realized just how little information about the country was available.

Many of the maps in the coming years were based

mainly on his work (Figs 4 and 5).16 He started work on a map for Robinson but soon left the task to the young Heinrich Kiepert (1818-1899), who thus embarked on what was to become a long-term involvement in the mapping of Palestine (Fig. 6).'7 Early in 1839 Berghaus wrote to Captain John

Washington, Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, saying that he was 'of the opinion that it would be a great loss for geography, were the materials collected by Messrs. Robinson and Smith not to be used for the construction of a map on a

large scale'.18

Although there were further calls for an orderly survey of Palestine, no project reached fruition. Various proposals were published, mainly in the two leading journals of explorative geography: the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London and

Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes' geographischer Anstalt iiber wichtige neue Erforschungen aus dem Gesammtge- biete der Geographie.l9 The proposals all reflected an

opinion that had already been expressed by the French scientist and traveller, Constantin-Francois Chasseboeuf de Volney (1757-1820). Recognizing the ineffectiveness of the haphazard collection of data by a lone traveller working for a short time wherever he happened to be, de Volney had called for interdisciplinary groups that were government directed and financed and that would address

specific issues.20 Robinson seems to have been the first to put the

92 idea of organizing a team to carry out a survey of

Palestine into writing. He did so in 1848, at the

height of the debate on the relative altitude of the surface of the Dead Sea. The fact that this body of water was at lower elevation than the Mediterra- nean had been published for the first time in 1837, and in the following decade hypsometric measure- ments were made all along the Jordan valley.21 These, however, failed to settle conclusively either the altitudes of the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea or the gradient of the Jordan River, which flowed from one to the other. Two of the protagonists were Robinson in New York and Petermann in Berlin, who claimed that there was nothing unusual in the

slope of the Jordan and added a comparison with the main rivers in the United Kingdom.22 It was clear to Robinson that the answer could only be achieved through organized, systematic measure- ment. Accordingly, he called on the governments of

'England, or France, or Prussia, to dispatch an

expedition for this purpose' and he 'hoped that the

Geographical Societies . . . will not let the matter

rest until it shall be fully accomplished.'23

August Plarr

When Petermann became editor of Mittheilungen, he took advantage of the opportunity the new

journal presented to promote geographical explora- tion throughout the world. In 1858 he published a call from August Plarr, a geographer and teacher from Heidelberg, who had just returned from a tour of Palestine and who had produced an article on the

geography of the Gilead, a mountainous region to the east of the Jordan.24 Plarr envisaged an international Christian campaign to conduct a detailed triangulation of Palestine:

It would only be worthy of the Geography Institute in Gotha to call for a scientific initiative that will be of universal interest to all Christianity. Your journal, the Mittheilungen, can publish a call to all Christian governments to set up an international committee that will set itself the goal of conducting, with all the scientific, artistic, and financial aid, not only a study, but also a complete triangulation and detailed mea- surement of all regions of Palestine.25

Plarr's proposal included an exact definition of the area to be surveyed, from Aqaba Bay in the south to the northern corner of the Lebanon valley in the north, the Mediterranean Sea in the west and

longitude 55? from Ferro (equivalent to 37? from

Greenwich) in the east. This means he was

suggesting a survey that would encompass not

only Palestine but also large parts of Transjordan, the part of Syria lying to the south and west of

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Damascus, and almost the whole of Lebanon.26 Plarr considered it beyond the power of a single nation to undertake such a project. Rather, an international delegation was required which would include surveyors and researchers from Russia, England, France, Prussia and Austria, since it was

'only by means of great combined efforts that

Christianity will come really to know the land [of the Holy Scriptures]'.27

Plarr was also conscious of the need to overcome various conflicts of interest among the different

groups operating in the area if Ottoman opposition was to be overcome. The lingua franca of such a

delegation, he advised, should be French, in which the surveyors from other countries could be

expected to be fluent. In an appendix to Plarr's

proposal, Petermann-who was also making a considerable contribution to the cartography of

Palestine-expressed the hope that the powers would unite around a project of this type.28

John Washington

Rear-Admiral John Washington (1800-1863), who had been Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society from 1836 to 1841, was appointed in 1845 by Francis Beaufort, Hydrographer of the

Royal Navy, as the 'commissioner for inquiring into the state of the rivers, shores, and harbours of the United Kingdom'. When Washington replaced Beaufort as Chief Hydrographer to the Admiralty ten years later, he expanded the navy's worldwide

programme of coastal surveys.29 One project he initiated was the mapping of the eastern shores of the Mediterranean in 1856 and 1857 as part of the

activity that followed the Crimean War and

preceded the digging of the Suez Canal, which started in April 1859. Under the leadership of Commander Arthur Lukis Mansell (1815-1890), the survey moved eastward along the coast of Egypt from the mouth of the Damieta. Mansell, then commander of the H.M.S. Tartarus, measured the coasts of Sinai and Egypt and the harbour of Alexandria. In 1858 his team went on to survey the Gulf of Iskenderun in southeastern Turkey, before working their way southward along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.

In 1860, with their new ship, H.M.S. Firefly, they began to survey the coasts of Syria, Lebanon and,

eventually, Palestine. This project required a bigger than usual team with a large number of surveyors and a scientist (usually from the field of natural

history). Late in September 1860, Mansell was

joined by Washington, accompanied by three friends, including the botanist (later the director of Kew Gardens) Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817- 1911). For the next six weeks, the group, 'provided with three chronometers, a theodolite, [and] six

barometers', would disembark to make surveying trips to various places in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. On one such occasion, they 'visited and fixed [the position of] the Cedars of Lebanon'.30 The team finished work on the Palestinian coast in

July 1861.3' The survey resulted in numerous maps, some of

them named after the various surveyors who, as indicated in the captions on the maps, had worked 'under the direction of Commander A. L. Mansell'. The map of the Palestinian coast, entitled 'Ras en- Nakuira to El Arish', measuring 63 X 96 centimetres and drawn to a scale of 1:220 000, was published for the first time in 1862. Another map, on the scale of 1:45 400 and measuring 47 X 64 centimetres,

portrayed the bay of Acre, the only natural

anchorage along the Palestinian shore. A number of larger-scale maps were devoted to modern and historical coastal cities such as Tyre, Acre, Haifa, Cesarea and Jaffa (Fig. 7).32 Both the maps and the

sailing instructions which Mansell had written in 1864 were still being used, with the necessary additions and corrections, until after the First World War.33

Firsthand experience in Syria and Palestine seems to have led Washington to give some

thought to the need for a systematic survey. I am inclined to think that, being of a practical turn of

mind, he would have appreciated the difficulties of

organizing and financing an international survey of such a large area and that he decided instead on a more feasible course, by using the Royal Geogra- phical Society to disseminate his ideas. From 1855 it had become customary for the President's annual

speech, enumerating the activities and achieve- ments of the previous year (especially those relating to exploration), to be published in the Society's Proceedings. Since this included a note referring to the 'admiralty surveys' and reports, Washington was able to put his reservations in writing.34 He set out in the Proceedings a lengthy list of 'subjects that warrant attention and research in Palestine' and listed the 'geographical problems that require accurate solution'. He said nothing about any general survey, however. Washington was also

trying to find a way of coordinating the research

being carried out independently by 'many of our 95

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44444'44Hbre4Unverityof eruale : Pl 534

countrymen' on their visits to the Holy Land.

Claiming that their work was worth so little only because of lack of guidance, he suggested that someone should direct the travellers "to one or two

special points in accordance with the part of the coast with which they decided to begin' their

journey. The travellers would also benefit, he said. from material assistance with a view to encouraging systematic research.

Out of ten topics Washington listed in the

Proceedings as worthy of research in Palestine, the first two-the 'accurate determination of the posi- tion of important cities, mountains, &c.' and the

'production of exact topographical plans of places of interest'-leave no doubt as to his ultimate inten- tion: the achievement of a topographical survey. This interpretation is supported by the other items

96 on Washington's list, which reflect the unique

nature of the region in general and the specific themes and sites he considered worth mapping in detail: the 'identification of sites of Biblical history'; the 'examination of sites with reference to some

special object, as the deciding between two con-

flicting traditions'; 'manners and customs of the current local population that may help elucidate biblical history'; 'natural production that may illuminate Biblical descriptions'; linguistic matters, 'traces of ancient names' and 'as far as possible, correct and uniform orthography'; 'careful draw-

ings of building and copies of inscriptions'; 'traces of volcanic or other remarkable geological phenom- ena'; and the 'examination and comparison of the tombs throughout Syria and Palestine'.

To explain and clarify his goals, Washington went on to elaborate his proposals with several

examples suggesting ways of recording all material

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Plate 4. Carel Willem [Charles William] Meredith van de Velde's Map of the Holy Land (1858). The map was based on a survey of 1841 and on van de Velde's own work in

1851 and 1852, and published in eight sections, each measuring 34 X 63 cm. Scale 1:315 000. (Reproduced with permission from The Jewish National and University Library, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Pal 645.) See page 98.

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relating to Palestine. He also described how little information was available, even in the late 1850s, on the exact longitude, latitude and altitude of

places. Figures for Jerusalem, he said, 'vary between 2200 and 2600 feet above the level of the Mediterranean' and those for Shechem (Nabu- lus) 'from 1460 to 1860 feet'. He concluded with a call for all interested parties to send him notes

concerning the questions or topics they wanted to be examined by those in the field.

The list of researchers cited by Washington as

having 'done much for the geography of the Holy Land' (among whom he included Ulrich Jasper Seetzen, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, Edward

Robinson, William Francis Lynch, Charles Roch-

fort-Scott, John Frederick Anthony Symonds, John Leech Porter, Charles William Meredith van de

Velde, Stanley Lane-Poole, Cyril Graham, Arthur

Penrhyn Stanley), suggests that he was hardly aware of contemporary French and German writing on the Holy Land.35 Yet we know Washington was well acquainted with August Petermann, who had

spent eight years in London before returning to

Germany in 1855 and who had left behind him a

reputation as a skilled cartographer and organizer of research expeditions. Petermann had written that the 'precise measurements' which would

supply a base to the mapping of Palestine had been achieved through Mansell's survey, 'thanks to the English Admiralty and, especially, thanks to the

highly scientific approach of the man who now

heads the Admiralty measurements Captain Washington'.36

Washington's text contains a brief but perhaps revealing paragraph: 'How, too, is that admirable

work the "Dictionary of the Bible" (the first volume of which, ably edited by Dr. Smith, has recently appeared) to be completed, unless we, as geogra- phers, contribute our share towards its perfec- tion?'37 We may assume that Washington included the reference to William Smith's biblical dictionary, with its implicit reminder of the religious impor- tance of Palestine, as the only way of attracting researchers and financiers to support studies of the

country. Thus, on familiar terms with the main

figures engaged in Palestinian research in the

English capital and aware of the publication of

Smith's dictionary and the favourable response it

aroused, Washington would have hoped that

heightened scientific and public interest in the

biblical regions would also help him promote his

ideas of organizing and focusing this research.

William Smith had started work on his diction-

ary in 1857 and when the last volume of his

Dictionary of the Bible was published in 1863, it included a review of the newest discoveries in biblical geography.38 Among his collaborators on the dictionary was George Grove (1820-1900), who is remembered to this day as editor of Grove's

Dictionary of Music and Musicians.39 Grove and Smith had met through a mutual friend, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-1881), Dean of Westminster, who shared their interest in Palestinian research.40 Grove's deep interest in the study of Palestine and his involvement in Smith's dictionary were likely to have been behind Grove's decision to establish in 1865 the Palestine Exploration Fund. Although the

prospectus prepared by the sub-committee set up at the Fund's foundation meeting on 12 May 1865 makes no mention of Washington's list, it is scarcely coincidental that the two are remarkably similar in their goals.41

Further Calls for a Survey of Palestine

The 1840s and 1850s were the years in which

trigonometric surveying was everywhere becoming the accepted basis for map making and for gaining firsthand familiarity with the region in question. These two decades saw the British, especially, expand their surveying activity throughout the

Empire. They also surveyed areas outside their

direct control, even outside their sphere of influ-

ence, if they considered such areas to be of strategic

importance. Despite its relative proximity to Suez, Palestine did not fall into either category; it did not

constitute a factor that would attract either the

government in London or one of the imperialist

trading societies to organize and invest in a survey. Nor was the British government alone among European governments in ignoring Palestine.

Even the French government, which sponsored

organized scientific delegations, carried out only

sporadic studies in Palestine. It was left to a few

individuals to survey the Holy Land. Some of these, who are mentioned below, continued advocating the idea of the need for a well-organized, interna-

tional or national survey of Palestine. The Dutch naval officer, Charles William Mer-

edith van de Velde (1818-1898), had acquired his

cartographical experience as head of the Dutch

Royal Hydrographer's Office in Batavia from 1839

to 1841. He made two visits to Palestine, once in the

early 1850s and again in the early 1860s, both

prompted by his study of the Holy Scriptures, which 97

41 f r ..

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Fig. 8. Section 1 of Carel Willem [Charles William] Meredith van de Velde's Map of the Holy Land constructed . . from his own surveys in 1851 cL 1852, from those made in 1841 by Majors Robe and Rochfort Scott, Lieut. Symonds and other officers of Her Majesty's Corps of Royal Engineers; and from the Results of the Researches made by Lynch, Robinson, Wilson, Burckhardt, Seetzen &ec. The map was engraved by Eberhardt and Stichardt and published in Gotha by Justus Perthes in 1858. 1:315 000. 8 sections (sheets) (see Plate 4 for Section 5), each 34 x 63. Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, No. 778. (Reproduced with permission from The

Jewish National and University Library, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Pal 645.)

had made him 'deeply feel the want of a correct and

sufficiently detailed map of the land to which they preeminently call our attention'.42 He made use of all existing maps based on modern surveying of

Palestine, added to them measurements taken with

relatively primitive methods (such as estimating distances), and produced what is generally accepted to have been the best map of the Holy Land before the Survey of Western Palestine was completed more than twenty years later. Van de Velde's map was published in English, German, Dutch and French. It comprises eight sections, or sheets, drawn to a scale of 1:315 000 and including maps of Jerusalem (1:10 000) and environs (1:250 000) (Fig. 8 and Plate 4).43 The opening comments in the memoir which accompanies the map are explicit: 'it

lay beyond my power to set off for Syria with the

98 necessary instruments, and, with the aid of compe-

tent assistants, to make what may be termed a

complete triangular survey; nor was I aware of any individual who, thrown on his own resources, had ever accomplished such a work.'44

In France, Louis Felicien Joseph Caignart, Baron de Saulcy (1807-1880), also called upon his

government to organize a delegation to Palestine,

mainly due to his interest in archaeological ruins. De Saulcy, an army officer and a keen numismatist and archaeologist, had toured and studied Palestine three times during the 1850s and 1860s.45 One of the participants in the delegation was the army cartographer Captain Charles Gelis, who was

responsible for the maps in de Saulcy's book,

including the one of the Dead Sea area (Fig. 9).46 The French government did initiate some survey- ing, mainly during the first half of the 1860s when the French army intervened to save the Christian

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0025m to 1000lm (= 1:400 000). 28.5 X 42.5 cm. (Private collection.)

99

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inhabitants of Lebanon from slaughter during a civil war, but only on a limited scale. The philosopher and orientalist Joseph Ernest Renan (1823-1892) was appointed by Napoleon III to lead an archae-

ological delegation to biblical Phoenicia and Renan's expedition surveyed the antiquities of Lebanon from 1860 to 1861.47 Another product of the military intervention was the 'beautifully executed' Carte du Liban, drawn on a scale of 1:200 000 by the same Captain Gelis (Fig. 10).48

Two more surveys followed. In 1864 the

archaeologist and numismatist, Honore Th6odoric Paul Joseph d'Albert, Duc de Luynes (1802-1867), led a delegation of scientists that set out to study the Dead Sea region, mainly in the fields of natural science and archaeology. The survey yielded, inter

alia, extensive cartographical material, mainly geological maps of the Dead Sea area (1:315 000) (Plate 5), Palestine and Syria including the Jordan

valley (1:1 100 000), and the whole area between

Syria and Nubia (1:5 000 000).49 Then, in May 1870, the French government dispatched a delega- tion of surveyors on behalf of the French army headquarters to map central and western Galilee, which was accomplished in three months. Their

map, which measures 59 x 48 centimetres and is on a scale of 1:100 000, shows the western and central parts of Galilee, from Zib (modern Achziv) in the north to Nazareth in the south and as far as Safed in the east. It is unclear whether the French had intended from the outset only to complete the 1862 military map of Lebanon, or whether they had hoped to conduct a trigonometric measure- ment of the whole of Palestine.50

One of the most prominent and consistent of those who called for the organization of research in Palestine was Carl Sandreczki (1809-1892), who had come to appreciate that modern research

projects in Palestine were far beyond the means of the single scholar. A native of Bavaria, Sand- reczki had arrived in Palestine in 1851 as a

missionary in the service of the English Church

Missionary Society and stayed in Jerusalem for more than 30 years.51 He helped Charles W. Wilson to map Jerusalem in 1864-1865 by preparing a full list of the names of the city's streets and alleyways both in Arabic and in English transliteration, adding descriptions and explanations.52 As early as 1859, he had suggested to Maximillian I, King of Bavaria, that a German scientific society for the study of Palestine should be established. Sandreczki per-

100 sisted with his idea, amplifying it over the years. In

1871, for example, after the unification of Ger-

many, he wrote that the suggested society should send 'two efficient researchers' to Palestine, accom-

panied by a 'first-class engineer' and an auxiliary team, who would effectively perform a survey and measurement of the ruins and relics.53 He repeat- edly criticized the inability of the Germans to unite on scientific projects, and he observed the research and surveys conducted by the English with unmasked jealousy.

The Mesopotamian Surveys

From the point of view of the British Empire, Mesopotamia-the area between the Tigris and

Euphrates rivers-had a dual strategic importance. It constituted a buffer zone between India and

Russia, which was making no attempt to disguise its southern expansionist aspirations. The British also saw the Euphrates as part of a possible route to India and had repeatedly considered it in relation to

solving one of the empire's main problems; namely, that of finding the shortest route to India. In the context of the lack of governmental or any other

major institutional interest in a survey of Palestine, a country of immense religious significance, the

surveying of Mesopotamia by the British in the 1830s constitutes a 'negative example', for no

significance was attached to it. India was the most important colony in the

British Empire, and efficient transportation routes were essential. The events of the early 1830s-the French control of Algeria, the occupation of Palestine and Syria by the Egyptian ruler Muhammed 'Ali-together with the threat from Russia in the north and rebellion in India itself, had forced England to devote attention to a prompt solution of the problem. The need to mobilize

military troops at relatively high speed, to transmit

shipments of post and goods, and to ensure

organized and orderly sea connections, all made the problem one of the utmost priority for the

policy makers in London during the first half of the nineteenth century.54

England had two possibilities for a quicker passage to India, each with a relatively short overland journey: one route through Egypt and the other through Mesopotamia. The persistent efforts of Francis Rawdon Chesney (1789-1872), an Irish-born engineering officer who devoted his life to promoting the northern route (which included using the Euphrates), led to surveying work in Mesopotamia. In 1831 Chesney embarked

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Fig. 10. Charles Gelis's map of Lebanon: Carte du Liban d'apres les Reconnaissances de la Brigade Topographique du Corps Expeditionnaire de Syrie en 1860-1861, dressee au depot de la Guerre par le Capitaine d'Etat Major Gelis sous le Ministere de S.E. Ie Marechal Comte Randon. Published in Paris by Lemercier in 1862 (revised 1913), and later in Berlin (Kartographischen Abteilung des stellvertr. Generalstabes, 1915). 1:200 000. 93 X 78 cm. Eran Laor Cartographic Collection (no number). (Reproduced with permission from The Jewish National and University Library, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem: ME 92.)

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on a risky expedition sailing along the Euphrates,

continuously measuring depths and collecting data. On his return to London, he became the greatest advocate for the northern route. His persistence led the government to finance an investigation into the

feasibility of establishing a connection with India by the use of steamboats on the Euphrates. Chesney

was nominated to head a delegation of thirteen officers and several dozen men, which reached Antioch (Antakya) early in 1835. Despite tremen- dous difficulties, they transported two dismantled

steamboats, which had been brought from England

by steamer, from Seleucia (Sueida, now Samandag, at the mouth of the Orontes River, near Antioch) to

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Fig. 11. Plan of the Position of the Tigris and Euphrates Steam Vessels on the 21st of May 1836 (above) and The Loss of the Former Vessel (below), in Francis Rawdon Chesney, Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition carried on by Order of the British Government

102 During the Years 1835, 1836 and 1837 (London, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1868), facing 253 and 255 respectively.

Birejik (now Birecik, southeastern Turkey) on the

Euphrates. The boats-named the Tigris and the

Euphrates-were re-assembled, and Chesney and his group then set out to sail the entire length of the river, making observations and taking further depth measurements. The project was interrupted when the Tigris was sunk in a hurricane with the loss of

twenty of the crew (Fig. 11). The survivors continued their mission, however, and in the summer of 1836 reached the mouth of the

Euphrates, thereby proving that the river was indeed navigable.55 In early 1837, the delegation was disbanded.

In England, meanwhile, support for the project declined for a number of reasons, but the autho- rities in India-the board of directors of the East India Company-decided that they wanted the

Euphrates project to continue. They nominated a new commander, another the Irish-born lieute-

nant, Henry Blosse Lynch (1807-1873) of the Indian Royal Navy. Lynch had served as Chesney's deputy and as commander of the Tigris. He had shown himself to be a talented linguist and skilled

diplomat on various excursions among the tribes of the Persian Gulf region. He assumed command of the Euphrates and over the next two years, until

1841, he and his men were busy completing the

trigonometric measurements. The Euphrates was

supported by three British-built iron steamships that had been transported around the Cape of Good

Hope, re-assembled and launched in Basra. The

four-steamship fleet, flying the Union Jack, con- ducted systematic measurement and mapping of the Land of the Two Rivers. The entire project was

formally completed in 1842.56 After that time, only one of the ships, under the command of Lieutenant Felix Jones, carried on mapping the land between the two rivers. The English continued to measure and survey in Mesopotamia until 1863, when the Indian navy was dissolved. The new phase of

trigonometric mapping (led again by Felix Jones), which began in the early 1850s, was related to the

emergence of another geo-political scheme, the construction of a British-controlled railway through the Euphrates Valley.57

The Survey of Western Palestine

As we have seen, up to the last third of the nineteenth century all plans and projects for an

organized modern survey of Palestine came to

nothing. The objective was ultimately achieved

only through the Survey of Western Palestine.

Effected between 1871 and 1877 by a team

consisting mainly of personnel from the Royal Engineers, the Survey was financially supported by private enterprise with some help from the British

government. It was the outcome of the urgent wish of members and subscribers to the Palestine

Exploration Fund, Charles W. Wilson included, to

map the Holy Land. It came of an idealistic imperial religious wish to possess the land for the British

Empire and to symbolize the achievements of the world's greatest Protestant Christian Empire. But it also came from an urgent practical need for Britain to map the Jordan valley in order to protect both Suez and India against France and Russia.58 The

Survey resulted in, among other things, one large map of western Palestine (26 sheets drawn to the scale of one inch to one mile or 1:63 360) (Fig. 12), a three-volume memoir explaining the map, and a further four volumes on the Survey in general but

concentrating in particular on the city of Jerusalem and on the flora and fauna of the Holy Land.59

One way of understanding the problems, logis- tical and other, inherent in setting up and carrying out an organized trigonometric survey of Palestine in the nineteenth century is to compare the costs of the latter with those for the Mesopotamian project. In 1834 Chesney had estimated that the cost of an

expedition to the Euphrates would reach ?13,000. In the event it cost ?43,000, which came mainly from the British government and the East India

Company, with some ?2,000 contributed by Ches-

ney himself.60 During the first 25 years of its

existence, the Palestine Exploration Fund spent ?51,000 on all its research projects in Palestine and Sinai (which works out at an average of just over

?2,000 a year). Exactly one-third of the Fund's

outlay, ?17,000, is recorded as having been spent on the Survey of Western Palestine. Taking into consideration the length, problematic nature and

complexity of the project, and in comparison with

Chesney's expenses, the amount does not seem to be out of the ordinary. However, it is unclear

exactly what this sum represents. Was it the entire cost of the field survey, spread over more than six

years? And from where did the funding for the map making and accompanying volumes come?61 The Fund would never have had the financial means to conduct such a survey on its own.62 The amount of

money in its account never exceeded a few hundred pounds (sometimes it amounted to only a few dozen pounds) and was clearly always wholly inadequate to support any well-equipped field 103

Fig. 12. Detail from Sheet IV of the Survey of Western Palestine, showing part of Upper Eastern Galilee, from the Palestine Exploration Fund map. Surveyed and drawn under the Direction of Lieut. C. R. Conder R.E. Lieut. H.H. Kitchener R.E. May 1878. The twenty-six-sheet map was reproduced by photo-zincography at the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton, from surveys

104 conducted for the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund between 1872 and 1877, and published in London in 1880 at a scale of one inch to one mile. (Private collection.)

expedition, however modest in size. Nor could the Fund have financed the preparation and publica- tion of the maps and memoirs, still less the rental of the necessary premises and equipment.

The answer to these questions can be found in John James Moscrop's book. Moscrop has made

good use of the wealth of archival material held at the Fund's London offices for his history of the Palestine Expedition Fund. The story of the Survey of Western Palestine also provides some of the

strongest support for the argument presented in this article, that the religious factor did not promote the execution of a complete survey of the whole

country. A letter written in May 1877 by Colonel

Home, of the British War Office, contains the

explicit statement that only military-strategic con- siderations led to the completion of the Western Palestine Survey. Home wrote: 'There are perhaps other reasons of a sentimental character that may perhaps be of some weight (in completing the

survey) but I propose to base any recommendation on the enormous military value of a good map of the country to us.'63

When the French began mapping Galilee in 1870 (as described above), Charles W. Wilson was

promptly appointed to a senior position in the

Topographical Department of the Intelligence Department of the War Office in London. The British clearly did not intend to leave the mapping of Palestine to the French. Even more to the point was the geo-political situation in the Middle East, where it had become obvious by the 1870s that another war was pending between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The new situation led to the British government's recognition that the region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea was indeed of strategic importance for Britain. As Home observed in his letter:

If Russia occupies Turkish Armenia she will have the two valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris at her disposal and she will completely dominate the Gulf of Seu- derum if indeed she does not occupy it. Syria especially the Valley of the Jordan will become of great importance as offering the easiest road for an advance on the Suez Canal-under such circumstances it is of the utmost importance that we should have good maps of the country.64

The history of the Survey of Western Palestine

indicates that the cartographical campaign would not have succeeded without the cooperation or-

more correctly-the support and 'cover' that the

War Office gave to the Palestine Exploration Fund.

Moscrop takes considerable pains to show how

the different governmental bodies, particularly the War Office, were involved in all stages of the

Survey of Western Palestine. He shows how Wilson was in practice serving as liaison between the

government and the Palestine Exploration Fund's Executive Committee, of which he was a member.

Moscrop also demonstrates how the imminent war between Russia and Turkey, which indeed erupted in 1876 after a long series of rebellions in the

Balkans, and British involvement in the political struggles between the European powers influenced the surveying and the rate at which the maps were

compiled. He also describes how general publica- tion of the maps and memoirs was held back until the War Office had finished with them for its own

purposes. Finally, Moscrop re-examines the pay- ments made by the Fund to those involved in the

survey. Revealingly, he finds that for most of the relevant period there is no mention of any payments for the salaries of the Royal Engineers. It has to be supposed that the money came from a

quite different source-that from which the men's salaries had always come, namely the War Office in London.

The Ordnance Survey of Western Palestine was never the priority of the London government or, for that matter, of any other European government. Up to the 1870s Palestine was important almost solely for its religious tradition. Interest in the country of the Bible provided the excuse for small studies and

expeditions of limited scope by individuals and

institutions, without much, if any, government involvement. Yet it was only the governments of the major European powers which could have commanded and organized research on a larger and more comprehensive scale.

Apart from the 'Peaceful Crusade', a scheme which originated in England and Germany in the 1840s for the peaceful occupation of the holy places of Palestine by Christians, the country was never an

object of imperialistic aspirations.65 Hence, there was no special need to invest efforts and means in

mapping it. Thus, the mapping of Palestine was

delayed until the emergence of a particular set of local and regional circumstances. Only then was the

Survey of Western Palestine by the Palestine

Exploration Fund successfully carried out in the 1870s. The 'Eastern Survey', decided on by the Executive Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund in November 1880, operated from the

beginning in close cooperation with the War Office. 105

But Conder, who headed the small working party,

managed to measure only about 500 square miles

before abandoning the project for two reasons: the

unfriendly attitude of the local governors, and the

change of interest by the government, which

became involved in the 1881-1882 events in

Egypt and Sudan. 'The abandonment of the Eastern

Survey does demonstrate', writes Moscrop, 'the

close linkage between the War Office, the Intelli-

gence Department, and the Fund and the fact that

this survey like its predecessor, the Western Survey, was not an independent survey run by the fund'.66

A version of this paper was presented to the 19th International Conference on the History of Cartography, Madrid, July 2001. Revised text received January 2002.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. For example: Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, Palestine (London, Robert Sayer, 1771?). See also Anne M. C. Godlewska, Geography Unbound: French Geographical Science from Cassini to Humboldt (Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 1999), 47-48. 2. The biblical term was used for the first time in Judges

20, 1. On the subject, see, for example, Gideon Biger, 'The names and boundaries of Eretz-Israel (Palestine) as reflections of stages in its history', in The Land That Became Israel: Studies in Historical Geography, ed. Ruth Kark (New Haven and London, Yale University Press; Jerusalem, Magnes Press, 1989), 1-22. See also Hans Fischer, 'Geschichte der Kartographie von Palastina', Zeitschrift des Deutschen Paldstina Vereins 62 (1939): 169-89, 63 (1940): 1-111; Isaac Schattner, The Map of Eretz-Israel and Its History (Jerusalem, Mosad Bialik, 1951) (in Hebrew); Yehoshua Ben-Arieh, 'The first surveyed maps of Jerusa- lem', Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies 11 (1973): 64-74 (in Hebrew); Haim Goren, 'Go View the Land': German Study of Palestine in the Nineteenth Century (Jerusalem, Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 1999) (in Hebrew).

3. Haim Goren, 'The chase after the Bible: individuals and institutions-and the study of the Holy Land', in Religion, Ideology and Geographical Thought, ed. Ute War- denga and Witold J. Wilczynski, WSP Kielce Studies in Geography 3 (Kielce, Wydawnictwo JENOSC, 1998), 103- 15. On 'geopiety' and 'geo-religion' see John Kirkland Wright, 'Notes on American geopiety', in Human Nature in Geography: Fourteen Papers 1925-1965, ed. John Kirkland Wright (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1966), 250-88; Yi-Fu Tuan, 'Geopiety: a theme in man's attachment to nature and to place', in Geographies of the Mind: Essays in Historical Geosophy in Honor of John Kirkland Wright, ed. David Lowenthal and Martyn J. Bowden (New York, Oxford University Press, 1976), 11-39; Ruth Kark, 'Sweden and the Holy Land: pietistic communal settle- ment', Journal of Historical Geography 22:1 (1996): 46-67 (hereafter JHG). 4. Herbert Henry Asquith, Letters to Venetia Stanley, ed.

Michael and Eleanor Brock (Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, 1982). 477-78. I am grateful to Shimon Gibson who called my attention to this source. Lieutenant (later Colonel) Claude Reignier Conder, Royal

106 Engineers, became the head of the Survey of Western

Palestine delegation in July 1872, and Kitchener joined in May 1874. The work was stopped in June 1875 owing to an Arab attack near Safed, and the team returned to England. The final stage of mapping, from early 1877 until September of the same year, was carried out by Kitchener, while Conder remained in London to prepare the publication of the collected material. See Eliahu Elath, 'Claude Reignier Conder (in the light of his letters to his mother)', Palestine Exploration Quarterly, Centenary Volume 97 (1965): 21-41 (hereafter PEQ).

5. Pierre Jacotin, Carte topographique de l'Egypte et de plusieurs parties des pays limitrophes levee pendant 1'expedition de l'Armee francais (Paris, 1810).

6. On Jacotin, see Godlewska, Geography Unbound (note 1), 77-78. For the survey, see Anne M. C. God- lewska, 'The Napoleonic Survey of Egypt: a masterpiece of cartographic compilation and early nineteenth-century fieldwork', Cartographica 25:1-2, Monograph 38-39 (1988). On the mapping in Palestine, see Heinrich Berghaus, Geographisches Memoir zur Erklirung und Erliiuterung der Karte von Syrien (Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1835), 1-4; Yehuda Karmon, 'An analysis of Jacotin's map of Palestine', Israel Exploration Journal 10:3 (1960): 155-73, 244-53. On Napoleon's voyage and campaigns in Pales- tine, see Henry Laurens, L'Expedition d'tgypte (Paris, Armand Colin, 1989), 1798-801.

7. John Arthur Ransome Marriott, The Eastern Question: An Historical Study in European Diplomacy [1917] (Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1969), 237-45; Matthew Smith Anderson, The Eastern Question 1774-1923: A Study in International Relations (London, Melbourne and Toronto, Macmillan; New York, St Martin's Press, 1966), 100-6; Arthur Breicha-Vauthier, Osterreich in der Levante: Geschichte und Geschichten einer alten Freundschaft (Wien and Munchen, Herold, 1972), 20-25; Andrew Lambert, "'Within cannon shot of deep water": the Syrian campaign of 1840', in Seapower Ashore: 200 Years of Royal Navy Operations on Land, ed. Peter Hore (London, Chatham, 2000), 79-95; Caesar E. Farah, The Politics of Interventionism in Ottoman Lebanon, 1830-1861 (London, Centre for Lebanese Studies; New York, L.B. Tauris; 2000), 30-51.

8. Yolande Jones, 'British military surveys of Palestine and Syria 1840-1841', The Cartographic Journal 10:1 (1973): 29-41. The map of Jerusalem was published as a supplement to the second edition of George Williams, The Holy City: Historical, Topographical and Antiquarian Notices of Jerusalem (London, J. W. Parker, 1849), Appendix, 9-13. See also Ben-Arieh, 'The first surveyed maps of Jerusa- lem' (see note 2), 69-71.

9. Edward Aldrich and John F. A. Symonds, Plan of the town and environs of Jerusalem ... from the original drawing of the survey made in the month of March 1841 . . . (London, engraved by Joseph Wilson Lowry; imprint James Wyld, 1841). See Eran Laor and Shoshana Klein, Maps of the Holy Land: Cartobibliography of Printed Maps, 1475-1900 (New York, Alan R. Liss; Amsterdam, Meridian, 1986), no. 939; Ben-Arieh, 'The first surveyed maps of Jerusalem' (see note 2), 71-72.

10. William R. O'Byrne, A Naval Biographical Dictionary; Comprising the Life and Service of Every Living Officer in Her Majesty's Navy ... [1849] (Polstead, Suffolk, J. B. Hayward & Son, 1990), 2: 1152; 'Sir William Symonds', The Dictionary of National Biography (London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1921-1922), 19: 278-79 (hereafter DNB); Frederic Boase, Modem English Biography (London, Frank Cass & Co., 1965), vol. 3, 860. At the time, Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort served as Chief Hydrographer of the British

Navy, in charge of the measuring and mapping projects (Llewellyn Styles Dawson, Memoirs of Hydrography, Includ- ing Brief Biographies of the Principal Officers who have Served in H.M. Naval Surveying Service between the Years 1750 and 1885 [1885] (London, Cornmarket Press, 1969) vol. 1, 1- 15; Baruch Rosen, 'Survey of the coast of Palestine by the Royal Navy', Cathedra 64 (July 1992): 59-78, esp. 64 (in Hebrew).

11. Charles Rochfort Scott, Map of Syria, constructed from the surveys and sketches of the undermentioned officers in that country in 1840, 1841, by Major C. Rochfort Scott, R. Staff- Corps, under whose general direction the work was undertaken, Major F. H. Robe, 87th Fusiliers and R. Wilbraham, 7th Fusiliers, and Lieut. J. F. A. Symonds, R. Engineers (London, John Arrowsmith, 1846). See Jones, 'British military surveys of Palestine' (note 8), 38-39. Rochfort Scott retired on 1864 and became, until 1869, governor of Guernsey.

12. Carl Ritter, The Comparative Geography of Palestine and the Sinaitic Peninsula [1866], translated by William L. Gage (New York, Greenwood Press, 1968), 2: 85.

13. Edward Robinson, 'Depression of the Dead Sea and of the Jordan valley', Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 18:2 (1848): 84-87 (hereafter JRGS); Williams, 'Supplement' (see note 8) 128-130; Charles William Wilson, 'Recent surveys in Sinai and Palestine', JRGS 43 (1873): 213. See also Charles M. Watson, The Life of Major- General Sir Charles William Wilson, Royal Engineer ... (London, John Murray, 1909).

14. Charles William Meredith van de Velde, Memoir to Accompany the Map of the Holy Land (Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1858), 5-6; Jones, 'British military surveys of Palestine' (see note 8), 38-39.

15. Edward Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea in 1838 (3 vols., London, J. Murray, 1841; Boston, Crocker and Brewster, 1841); idem., Paldstina und die siidlich angrenzenden Liinder: Tagebuch einer Reise im Jahre 1838 in Bezug auf die biblische Geographie unternommen (3 vols, Halle, Weisenhaus, 1841). See also Henry Boynton Smith and Rosewell D. Hitchcock, The Life, Writings and Character of Edward Robinson [1863] (New York, Arno Press, 1977); Frederick Jones Bliss, The Development of Palestine Exploration (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907), 184-223; Yehoshua Ben-Arieh, The Rediscovery of the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century (Jerusalem, The Magnes Press and Israel Exploration Society; Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1979), 85- 93.

16. Heinrich Berghaus, Karte von Syrien, den Manen Jacotin's und Burckhardt gewidmet, in Berghaus, Geo-

graphisches Memoir (see note 6); Heinrich Berghaus and Friedrich von Stiilpnagel, Paldstina nach den zuverldssigsten alten und neuen Quellen, mit Text von Karl von Raumer

(Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1844). 17. Goren, Go View the Land (see note 2), 80-89; Haim

Goren, 'Carl Ritter's contributions to Holy Land research', in Text and Image: Social Construction of Regional Knowledge, ed. Anne Buttimer, Stanley D. Brunn and Ute Wardenga, Beitrdge zur Regionalen Geographie 49 (Leipzig, Institut fur Landerkunde, 1999), 28-37; Haim Goren, 'Heinrich

Kiepert in the Holy Land, spring 1870: sketches from an

exploration-tour of an historical cartographer', in Antike Welten Neue Regionen: Heinrich Kiepert 1818-1899, ed. Lothar Zogner, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, PreuBischer Kulturbesitz, Ausstellungskataloge, Neue Folge 33 (Berlin, Kiepert KG, 1999), 45-61.

18. Berghaus's letter was published in the Society's journal ('Extract from a letter of Professor Berghaus', JRGS

9 (1839): 308-10). See also Wilson, 'Recent surveys in Sinai and Palestine' (note 13), 212.

19. The Mittheilungen, edited by the cartographer August Petermann (1822-1878), began publication in 1855 at the Perthes publishing house in Gotha (Goren, Go View the Land (see note 2), 89-93).

20. Godlewska, Geography Unbound (see note 1), 199- 203, esp. 202. 21. 'On the Dead Sea and some positions in Syria', JRGS

7 (1837): 456. See also Barbara Kreiger, Living Waters: Myth, History, and Politics of The Dea Sea (New York, Continuum, 1988), 60-94; Haim Goren, 'How low is the lowest point on earth? The story of determining the level of the Dead Sea' (in press).

22. The Royal Geographical Society reported the debate in its journal: Robinson, 'Depression of the Dead Sea and of the Jordan valley' (see note 13), 87; Edward Robinson, 'Depression of the Dead Sea and the Jordan valley', Bibliotheca sacra 5 (1848): 397-409. See also Kreiger, Living Waters (note 21), 60-75; Goren, Go View the Land (note 2), 91. 23. Robinson, 'Depression of the Dead Sea and of the

Jordan valley' (see note 13), 87; August Petermann, 'On the fall of the Jordan, and of the principal rivers in the United Kingdom', JRGS 18 (1848): 89-104; August Petermann, 'Die projektirte Kanalisirung des Isthmus von Sues. Nebst Andeutungen iiber die Hohen Verhalt- nisse der angrenzenden Regionen, besonders Palastina', Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes' geographischer Anstalt iber wichtige neue Erforschungen aus dem Gesammtgebiete der Geographie 1 (1855): 371-75 (hereafter PM). 24. Dr P.-r [August Plarr], 'Zur Geographie von Palas-

tina', Magazin fir die Literatur des Auslandes 1857, nos. 65, 74. See Reinhold Rohricht, Bibliotheca Geographica Palaes- tinae: Chronologisches Verzeichnis der von 333 bis 1878

verfassten Literatur iber das Heilige Land, mit dem Versuch einer Kartographie [Berlin, 1890], ed. David H. K. Amiran (Jerusalem, The Universitas Booksellers, 1963), 487. No biographical details are available for Plarr.

25. 'Es ware der Geographischen Anstalt zu Gotha wiirdig, ein wissenschaftliches Unternehmen hervorzur- ufen, das fur die ganze Christenheit von universellem Interesse sein wiirde. Ihr Organ, die "Mittheilungen", konnte einen Aufruf an alle christlichen Regierungen zur Bildung einer internationalen Kommission erlassen, welche den Zweck hatte, mit alien wissenschaftlichen, artistischen und pekuniaren Hulfsmitteln nicht nur eine Erforschung, sondern eine vollstandige Triangulation und Detail-Aufnahme des ganzen Gebietes von Palastina' ('Aufruf zu einer grossen Vermessung Palastina's', PM 4

(1858): 342). 26. Ferro (Hierro) is the easternmost of the Canary

Islands, where in 1634 the 0? meridian was established. The meridian lies 18 degrees to the west of Greenwich. The given longitude passes east of Damascus.

27. '. . . nur durch vereinte kraftige Anstregungen die Christenheit dazu gelangen wird, das Land, ... in Wirklichkeit ganz zu kennen' ('Aufruf zu einer grossen Vermessung Palastina's' (see note 25), 342).

28. For Petermann's contribution to the cartography of Palestine, see Goren, Go View the Land (note 2), 89-95.

29. Dawson, Memoirs of Hydrography (see note 10), 2: 93- 111. See also Andrew Lambert, 'The Admiralty, the "Trent" crisis of 1861 and the strategy of imperial defence', in Les marines francaise et britannique face aux Atats-Unis de la guerre d'Independence a la guerre de Secession

(1766-1865) (VIIes Journees franco-britanniques d'histoire de la Marine, Vincenne, Service historique de la Marine, 107

1999), 305-23, esp. 310-13. On the Hydrographic Office of the Navy and its activity see Roger Morris, '200 years of Admiralty charts and surveys', Mariner's Mirror 82 (1996): 420-35. For a list of the heads of the office see John Christopher Sainty, ed., Admiralty Officials 1660-1870, Office-Holders in Modern Britain, 4 (London, Athlone Press for University of London, 1975), 77, 156.

30. Roderick Impey Murchinson, 'Address to the Royal Geographical Society of London', JRGS 31 (1861): cxxxviii-cxli; Dawson, Memoirs of Hydrography (see note 10), 108; Rosen, 'Survey of a the coast of Palestine' (see note 10), 67; Badr el-Hage, 'The first scientific mission in 1860 to the Cedars of Mount Lebanon', Archaeology & History in Lebanon, 12 (2000): 69-81. On Hooker see Lucile H. Brockway, Science and Colonial Expansion: The Role of the British Royal Botanic Gardens (New York and elsewhere, Academic Press, c.1979), 84-99.

31. Rosen, 'Survey of the coast of Palestine' (see note 10). See also Titus Tobler, 'Neuere wissenschaftliche Reisen des Marine-Officiers Mansell und des Herzogs von Luynes nach Palastina', Das Ausland 38 (1865): 322- 24; Wilson, 'Recent surveys in Sinai and Palestine' (note 13), 216; Dawson, Memoirs of Hydrography (note 10), 2: 101-11. 32. Mediterranean. Coast of Syria. Sheet 3. Ras en-Nakara to

El Arish. Surveyed by The Officers of H.M. Ship Firefly under the direction of Commr. A. L. Mansell, R.N. in 1862 (London, Admiralty, 1864-1865); Mediterranean Sea. Syria. Bay of Acre. Surveyed by Messrs. Thomas A. Hull & F. B. Christian, R.N. under the direction of Commr. A. L. Mansell, R.N. (London, J. & C. Walker, 1863). For a list of Mansell's maps, see R6hricht, Bibliotheca Geographica Palaestinae (note 24), 652-53; Rosen, 'Survey of the coast of Palestine' (note 10), 77-78.

33. Arthur Lukis Mansell, 'Coast survey of Palestine', Nautical Magazine, October 1862, 505-8; idem., 'A survey- ing trip through the Holy Land', Nautical Magazine, January 1863, 36-40. See also Rosen, 'Survey of the coast of Palestine' (note 10), 74-76.

34. Washington's text was published in Earl de Grey and Ripon, 'Admiralty surveys', Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London 4 (1859-1860): 150-52. Washington distributed a slightly different version of his text as a circular; dated 1 May 1860, it now had a short preface discussing the results of the coastal survey. The circular was sent to Petermann, who had it translated and published: [A. Petermann], 'Die neuen Englischen Auf- nahmen in Syrien u. Palastine; Aufforderung an die Freunde der Geographie des Hell. Landes', PM 6 (1860): 480-81.

35. For example, Washington failed to cite Ritter's list of elevations in Palestine, which is much more accurate than Washington's. Carl Ritter, Vergleichende Erdkunde der Sinai- Halbinsel, von Palistina und Syrien, 2, part 1 (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1850), 477-78, and a correction on page xx of the list of 'Printer's errors and essential improvements'. On pages 478-79 Ritter continues with details of 'relative levels above the area'.

36. 'Dank der Englischen Admiralitat und Dank beson- ders dem hohen wissenschaftlichen Standpunkte des jetzigen Chefs der Admiralitats-Aufnahmen, Captain Washington' (Petermann, 'Die neuen Englischen Aufnah- men in Syrien' (see note 34), 480).

37. Ripon, 'Admiralty surveys' (see note 34), 150. 38. William Smith, ed., A Dictionary of the Bible, Compris-

ing Its Antiquities, Biography, Geography and Natural History, 3 vols. (London, J. Murray, 1860-1863).

108 39. For Grove's contribution to Smith's dictionary, see,

for example, vol. 2, 694-96 (Palestine Literature), and the words of the editor (vol. 1, Appendix, p. x): 'Mr. George Grove of Sydenham, besides contributing the articles to which his initial is attached, has rendered the Editor important assistance in writing the majority of the articles on the more obscure names in the first volume, in the correction of the proofs, and in the revision of the whole book'. Concerning Grove's Victorian nature, his deep interest in various fields, and his connection with biblical studies and Palestine, see Vivian D. Lipman, 'The origins of the Palestine Exploration Fund', PEQ 120 (1988): 45- 54, esp. 46. See also Charles Larcom Graves, The Life and Letters of Sir George Grove (London and New York, Macmillan, 1903); Percy Marshall Young, George Grove 1820-1900 (London, Macmillan, 1980). 40. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Sinai and Palestine in

Connexion with Their History (London, J. Murray, 1856). See also Ben-Arieh, The Rediscovery of the Holy Land (note 15), 153-54. 41. For the aims of the Palestine Exploration Fund, see

Charles Moore Watson, Palestine Exploration Fund: Fifty Years' Work in the Holy Land, a Record and a Summary 1865- 1915 (London, The Committee of the Palestine Explora- tion Fund, 1915), 65-80, esp. 22-28. Watson does not mention Washington, although he discusses the back- ground to the establishment of the Fund at length, and the 'prospectus' mentions the measurement of the coast of Palestine (ibid., 11-16, 26). See also Lipman, 'The origins of the Palestine Exploration Fund' (note 39); Haim Goren, 'Scientific organizations as agents of change: the Palestine Exploration Fund, the Deutsche Verein zur Erforschung Paldstinas and nineteenth-century Palestine', JHG 27:2 (2001): 153-65, esp. 154-56. Examination of some of the contemporary studies reveals no mention of Washington: Ben Arieh, The Rediscovery of the Holy Land (see note 15); Neil Asher Silberman, Digging for God and Country: Exploration, Archeology, and the Secret Struggle for the Holy Land 1799-1917 (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), 113- 23; Naomi Shepherd, The Zealous Intruders: The Western Rediscovery of Palestine (London, Collins, 1987); John James Moscrop, Measuring Jerusalem: The Palestine Exploration Fund and British Interests in the Holy Land (London and New York, Leicester University Press, 2000).

42. Van de Velde, Memoir to Accompany the Map of the Holy Land (see note 14), 1. See also Johannes Godefridus Frederiks, Biographisch woordenboek der Noord- en Zuidne- derlandsche letterkunde (Amsterdam, L. J. Veen, 1888), 39; Ben-Arieh, The Rediscovery of the Holy Land (see note 15), 130-31. 43. Map of the Holy Land constructed by C. W. M. van de

Velde ... from his own surveys in 1851 & 1852; from those made in 1841 by Majors Robe and Rochfort Scott, Lieut. Symonds and other officers of Her Majesty's Corps of Royal Engineers; and from the results of the Researches made by Lynch, Robinson, Wilson, Burckhardt, Seetzen etc. (Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1858). See also Rohricht, Bibliotheca Geographica Palaestinae (note 24 above), 616; Ben-Arieh, The Redis- covery of the Holy Land (see note 15), 147. 44. Van de Velde, Memoir to Accompany the Map of the Holy

Land (see note 14), 1. See also Wilson, 'Recent surveys in Sinai and Palestine' (note 13), 214. 45. Shepherd, The Zealous Intruders (see note 41), 198.

See also lve Gran-Aymerich, Naissance de l'archeologie modeme 1798-1945 (Paris, CNRS editions, 1998), 190-92.

46. Esquisse du littoral de la Mer Morte et de la Moabitide d'apres la Carte inedite, levee en 1851, par Fel. De Saulcy . . . (Paris, Thiery Freres, 1852). See Louis-Felicien Joseph Caignart de Saulcy, Carnets de Voyage en Orient 1845-1869,

ed. Fernande Bassan (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1855), 212 (n. 234). 47. Ernest Renan, Mission de Phenicie, texte (Paris,

Imprimerie imperiale, 1871). See also Gran-Aymerich, Naissance de l'archeologie moderne (note 45), 193-94; Wilson, 'Recent surveys in Sinai and Palestine' (note 13), 215-16. 48. Carte du Liban d'apres les Reconnaissances de la Brigade

Topographique du Corps Expeditionnaire de Syrie en 1860-1861 (Paris, Lemercier, 1862). See also Ernest Renan, Mission de Phenicie (note 47); Gran-Aymerich, Naissance de l'archeolo- gie moderne (note 45), 193-94; Wilson, 'Recent surveys in Sinai and Palestine' (note 13), 215-16; Farah (see note 9), 647-674. 49. Honore Theodoric Paul Joseph d'Albert, duc de

Luynes, Voyage d'exploration a la Mer Morte, a Petra et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain, ed. Charles Jean Melchior de Vogue, 3 vols. and Atlas (Paris, A. Bertrand, 1871-1876); Louis Lartet, Exploration geologique de la Mer Morte, de la Palestine et de l'Idumee (Paris, A. Bertand, 1878). The maps are Carte geologique des bords de la Mer Morte, dressee sous les auspices de Mr. Le Duc de Luynes par Louis Lartet (in Lartet's book); Carte geologique du basin de la Mer Morte et des regions de la Syrie, de la Palestine et de l'Arabie Petree, dressee sous les auspices de Mr. Le Duc de Luynes par Louis Lartet, and Esquisse geologique generale de la Syrie, des Arabie Petr&e et de I'Egypte, dressee sous les auspices de Mr. Le Duc de Luynes par Louis Lartet (in de Luynes' book). See also Gran-Aymerich, Naissance de l'archeologie moderne (note 45), 285.

50. Leves en Galilde, faisant suite a la Carte du Liban de l'Etat-Major Francais, Execut6s en 1870 par M.M. Mieulet et Derrien, Capitaines d'Etat-Major, 1:100 000. See also Wil- son, 'Recent surveys in Sinai and Palestine' (note 13), 217; Dov Gavish, 'French cartography of the Holy Land in the nineteenth century', PEQ 126 (1994): 24-31; Moscrop, Measuring Jerusalem (note 41), 85.

51. Goren, Go View the Land (see note 2), 255-59. 52. Sandreczki's manuscript is presented as a facsimile

photograph at the end of the 1980 edition of Wilson's book: Charles William Wilson, Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem (London, H.M. Stationery Office, G. E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode, printers, 1865; facsimile ed. Jerusalem, Ariel, 1980).

53. Carl Sandreczki, 'Warren's Ausgrabungen in Jerusa- lem', PM 14 (1868): 293-94; idem, 'Briefe aus Palastina', Das Ausland 44 (1871): 810; idem, 'Wozu uns Deutscher der "Palestine Exploration Fund" ermahnt', Das Ausland 47 (1874): 114-15.

54. Eliahu Elath, Britain's Routes to India: British Projects in 1834-1872 for linking the Mediterranean with the Persian Gulf by Steam Navigation on the Euphrates and by Euphrates Valley Railway (Jerusalem, The Magnes Press, 1971) (in Hebrew), 25-42; Marriott, Eastern Question (see note 7), 223-26; Jacob Coleman Hurewitz, Diplomacy in the Near and Middle East; A Documentary Record: 1535-1914 (New York, Octagon Books, 1972), 106.

55. On Francis Rawdon Chesney, see DNB, 4 (1917), 195-98. Chesney's books are The Expedition for the Survey of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris, Carried on by Order of the British Government, in the Years 1835, 1836, and 1837, Preceded by Geographical and Historical Notices of the Regions Situated Between the Rivers Nile and Indus, 4 vols. (London, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1850); and Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition Carried on by Order of the British Government during the Years 1835, 1836 and 1837 (London, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1868). See also Elath, Britain's Routes to India (note 54), 49-97; 149-80.

56. Elath, Britain's Routes to India (see note 54); Halford Lancaster Hoskins, British Routes to India (London, Octagon Books, 1966). For Henry Blosse Lynch, see DNB, 12 (1909), 333-34; Chesney, Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition (note 55), 547-48. For the reports see Chesney, Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition (note 55); Henry Blosse Lynch, 'Memoirs, in three parts of the River Euphrates', Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society 6 (1841-1844), 169-86. For a partial list of the maps, see A Catalogue of Manuscript and Printed Reports, Field Books, Memoirs, Maps, etc., of The Indian Surveys, deposited in The Map Room of the India Office (London, W. H. Allen et al., 1878), 489-98. Articles, papers and maps (usually on larger scale) were published in the JRGS, particularly in volumes 4 (1834) to 11 (1841), and later the works of Felix Jones and others.

57. Elath, Britain's Routes to India (see note 54), 98-135; Hoskins, British Routes to India (see note 56), 180-82; Chesney, Narrative (note 55), 547-48. On Felix Jones, see Dawson, Memoirs of Hydrography (note 10), 1: 88-90.

58. Moscrop, Measuring Jerusalem (see note 41), 123. 59. Claude Reignier Conder and Horatio Herbert Kitch-

ener, Map of Western Palestine in 26 sheets from surveys conducted for the committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund ... 1872-1877 (London, Palestine Exploration Fund, 1880). 60. Hoskins, British Routes to India (see note 56), 177. 61. Walter Besant, 'The general work of the Society', in

The City and the Land: A Course of Seven Lectures on the Work of the Society, ed. Palestine Exploration Fund (London and New York, A. P. Watt, 1892), 105; Ben-Arieh, The Rediscovery of the Holy Land (see note 15), 191; Moscrop, Measuring Jerusalem (see note 41).

62. Moscrop, Measuring Jerusalem (see note 41), 95-125. 63. Colonel Home of the British War Office to its Chief

Secretary, 19.5.1877, cited by Moscrop, Measuring Jerusa- lem (see note 41), 119 (according to Palestine Exploration Fund Archives, London, Letter Book entry, 29).

64. Ibid. 65. Alexander Scholch, 'Europa und Palastina 1838-

1917', in Die Paldstina-Frage 1917-1948: historische Urspriinge und internationale Dimensionen eines Nationalkon- flikts, ed. Helmut Mejcher and Alexander Scholch (Pader- born, Schoningh, 1981), 30-34.

66. Moscrop, Measuring Jerusalem (see note 41), 129-36, ref. on 135.

109

Terre sacre'e, mais non cartographie'e: les leve's topographiques de la Palestine au XIXe siecle Au XIXe siacle, les projets de cartographie de la Palestine a partir de leves topographiques d'ensemble ont atteint leur apogee avec l'Ordnance Survey de la Palestine occidentale, realis6 entre 1871 et 1877 par des officiers du corps royal des ingenieurs de l'armee britannique sur l'ordre du Fonds d'Exploration de la Palestine. Nous presentons aussi divers autres projets de leves topographiques du pays au XIXe siecle- certains furent en partie executes, d'autres ne furent pas meme commences. Le cas de la Mesopotamie, cartographiee au cours des annees 1830 et 1840, est analyse pour comprendre les causes du retard relatif de ces leves topographiques. Le caractere sacre de la terre palestinienne ne semble pas avoir suffi pour convaincre les entrepreneurs d'organiser et de financer de tels leves. Cependant, le retard du projet de

cartographie d'ensemble du territoire s'explique avant tout par son faible interet, tant strategique que geopolitique, avant le dernier quart du XIXe siecle, pour les pays europeens rivalisant au Proche-Orient.

Heilig aber nicht kartiert: Landesvermessungen von Paldstina im 19. Jahrhundert Die Kartierungsprojekte des 19. Jahrhunderts in Palastina, die auf einer systematischen Landvermessung basierten, erreichten mit dem Ordnance Survey of Western Palastine zwischen 1871 und 1877, der im

Auftrag vom Palestine Exploration Fund durch Offiziere des British Royal Engineering Corps durchgefuhrt wurde, einen Hohepunkt. Dariiber hinaus werden verschiedene andere Vorschldge fur organisiert durchgefiihrte Vermessungen des Landes, von denen einige Teilergebnisse lieferten, wahrend andere noch nicht einmal begonnen wurden, vorgestellt. Anhand der Vermessung Mesopotamiens in den 1830er und den 1840er Jahren werden die Griinde fiir die erst relativ spat stattfindende topographische Vermessung diskutiert. Dass das Gebiet heilig war, scheint fur mogliche Unternehmer kein ausreichend iiberzeugendes Motiv gewesen zu sein, die Vermessung zu organisieren und zu finanzieren. Die Hauptursache fur die

verspatete Kartierung des Landes lag in seiner geringen geopolitischen und strategischen Bedeutung fur die

Europaer. Das anderte sich erst im letzten Viertel des 19. Jahrhunderts, als sich die Europaischen Staaten in internationale Auseinandersetzungen im Mittleren Osten verwickelt sahen.

Tierra sagrada pero no cartografiada. Los levantamientos topogrdficos de Palestina en el siglo XIX En el siglo XIX, los proyectos para hacer mapas de Palestina a partir de levantamientos topograficos de

conjunto, alcanzaron su apogeo con la Ordnance Survey de Palestina occidental y fueron realizados entre 1871 y 1877 por oficiales del real cuerpo de ingenieros del ejercito britanico por cuenta de los Fondos de

Exploraci6n de Palestina. Se exponen en el articulo otros proyectos de levantamientos topograficos del pais en el siglo XIX, algunos parcialmente realizados y otros que ni siquiera se iniciaron. El caso de Mesopotamia, cartografiada en los afios de 1830 y 1840, es analizado para comprender las causas del relativo retraso de estos levantamientos. El caracter sagrado Palestina no parece haber influido en los organizadores para poner en marcha y financiar los trabajos. El retraso en iniciar un plan de levantamientos del territorio, se explica por el escaso interes estrategico y geopolftico que tenian los paises europeos involucrados en el Proximo Oriente antes del ultimo cuarto del siglo XIX.

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