Istanbul and the Bosphorus
This rare staff map is, as the colophon states in Ottoman-Turkish, from the Printing Office of the United Chiefs of Staff. Only late in the 19th century did the Ottoman army adopt map techniques from France and Germany, including the standard 1:50,000 scale (1cm on the map is 500m on the ground), but with its own colouring. The legend includes indications of (rail) roads, waterways (including an aqueduct, with arrows from a northern reservoir) and telegraph lines (over the hilltops), as well as (Christian and Muslim) cemeteries and Sufi lodges (‘tekkes’). Mosques and churches, however, are missing. By European standards of the time, the map is rather sloppy. The most striking symbol of modernity is the note of the black railway lines, ending on the European side at the Galata Bridge in Istanbul, and across the Bosphorus further into Asia. The map dates from shortly before the collapse of the Ottoman army during the First Balkan War, as Bulgaria advanced to the city’s gates.
United Chiefs of Staff, Istanbul ve Boğazı ve civarı haritası (Map of Istanbul, the Bosphorus and their surroundings), Istanbul 1911-'12. Coll. S/T W.2s.2, 105 x 112.5 cm.
