[Mısır Haritası / Map of Egypt]

Description

The outbreak of WWI and the final disintegration of empires.

A rare survivor of late Ottoman cartography, this map of Lower Egypt is like a window onto a world poised at the brink of global conflict. Produced by the Ottoman Ministry of General Staff in Istanbul in Rumi 1330 (i.e., March 1914–February 1915), it would have graced the walls of Ottoman military headquarters preparing for an anticipated yet sudden outbreak of war. Its size, four‐color lithography, and folding format suggest both a display piece for strategic briefings and a portable aid for field planning. It is a testimony to the fusing of cartography, military intelligence, and imperial ambition on the eve of World War I.

At first glance, the great fan of the Nile Delta dominates the centre, its waterways and agricultural contours rendered in subtle greens and blues, while the Suez Canal and Cairo–Suez railway cleave the map in bold black lines. Every city, town, railway spur, and main road is meticulously labeled, and topographical shading denotes desert expanses and inland elevations.

Five insets frame the sheet and imply broader regional relevance: Cairo’s fortified districts (lower left), Alexandria’s deep-water docks (lower right), the twin canal ports of Port Said and Port Suez (upper right), and a small but sweeping overview extending south into Sudan and Ethiopia (lower left, next to Cairo map). Military installations and foreign-concession stations (British, Italian, and others) are discreetly marked, underscoring Lower Egypt’s geostrategic importance. Lithographed in black, green, blue, and orange, the map’s clarity and designed durability make it clear that Ottoman officers in both the Sinai and the Delta relied on it as their tactical roadmap.

Context is Everything

Behind the fine contour lines and subtle hues lies the urgency of an empire under threat. Since Britain’s occupation of Egypt in 1882, the Suez Canal had stood as the linchpin of imperial communications: a 100-mile artery carrying troops and supplies from India, Australia, and beyond. Within weeks of the Ottomans’ entry into the war in late October 1914, German commanders, such as Col. Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, began plotting to sever this crucial lifeline for the British. In January 1915, under the cover of a desert sandstorm, an Ottoman-German force methodically crossed the Sinai to strike the canal near Ismailia. Although the initial surprise was achieved, the attackers’ hastily constructed pontoon bridges broke or were destroyed before sufficient troops could cross the waterway, which meant the raiders were repulsed with heavy losses.

Undeterred, in the summer of 1916, the same expeditionary army massed once more, this time aiming at Romani’s sand-sculpted ridges east of the canal. Despite seizing important high ground on August 4, the attackers, hampered by heat, failing supplies, and inaccurate artillery, were driven back into the open, where British counter-battery fire and mounted units forced a retreat to El Arish. These two dramatic but ultimately unsuccessful assaults sealed the Canal’s defence and marked a turning point in the Sinai campaign.

As a silent witness to these unfolding dramas, the map stands not only as a masterwork of Ottoman military printing but as a prelude to the desert campaigns that would help reshape the modern Middle East.

Census

An example of this map can be found in the David Rumsey Map Collection (List no. 15008.000). The OCLC lists no institutional holdings.