1840–41 Royal Engineers maps of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria

The 1840–41 Royal Engineers maps of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria was an early scientific mapping of Palestine (including a detailed mapping of Jerusalem), Lebanon and Syria.

1840–41 Royal Engineers maps of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria
The Aldrich and Symonds map of Jerusalem
Created1840-41
LocationThe National Archives (United Kingdom)
Author(s)Royal Engineers

It represented the second modern, triangulation-based, attempt at surveying Palestine.[1]

It has occasionally been mislabeled as an Ordnance Survey map; in fact none of the officers worked for the Ordnance Survey, which was a separate organization.[2] The Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem, carried out almost 25 years later, was a separate and materially more detailed endeavor.

Jerusalem map

The Jerusalem map was printed privately for the Board of Ordnance in August 1841. It was published in a reduced form in Alderson's ‘’Professional Papers of the Royal Engineers’’ in 1845,[3] and subsequently as a supplement to the 1849 second edition of George Williams’ The Holy City: Historical, Topographical, and Antiquarian Notices of Jerusalem together with a 130-page memoir on the plan.[4][5] The memoir contained a three-page appendix defending the plan from criticism received from Edward Robinson. [4]

Regional maps

The regional maps were never published in their entirety.[1] A private printing for the British Foreign Office was produced in 1846.[6] The only published map, Map 2, was published in Charles Henry Churchill's book on Mount Lebanon.[6] Map 3 was used in the creation of Van de Velde's map.[1]

Charles Wilson later explained that the data "was in too fragmentary a state for publication". [7]

Criticism

The survey contained a number of flaws. The theodolite was often operated by Symonds alone, miscalculations were made around heights (e.g. on the Sea of Galilee), and the outlines of the Haram es-Sharif in Jerusalem were known to have been miscalculated. As such, scholars such as Edward Robinson and August Petermann chose not to trust the work.[8]

List of officers involved in the survey

Regional maps

City maps

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Alderson, Ralph Carr (1843). "Notes on Acre and Some of the Coast Defences of Syria". Papers on subjects connected with the duties of the corps of Royal Engineers. 6.

Secondary sources

References

  1. Goren, Faehndrich & Schelhaas 2017, p. 66.
  2. Jones 1973, p. 30.
  3. Addition to ‘Notes on Acre’”, Papers on Subjects connected with the Duties of the Corps of Royal Engineers, VII, 1845, 46-47
  4. Williams, George (1849). "Supplement: Memoir on the Plan of Jerusalem". The Holy City: Historical, Topographical, and Antiquarian Notices of Jerusalem. J.W. Parker. pp. 1–130.
  5. Jones 1973, p. 32.
  6. Jones 1973, p. 37.
  7. Goren 2002, p. 90.
  8. Goren, Faehndrich & Schelhaas 2017, p. 102-103.
  9. Note that Yolande Jones' 1973 publication mislabels Lt. Symonds as "John", a mistake repeated by other authors.
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