Cartography of Jerusalem
The cartography of Jerusalem is the creation, editing, processing and printing of maps of Jerusalem from ancient times until the rise of modern surveying techniques. Almost all extant maps known to scholars from the pre-modern era were prepared by Christian mapmakers for a Christian European audience.
Maps of Jerusalem can be categorised between original factual maps, copied maps and imaginary maps, the latter being based on religious books. The maps were produced in a variety of materials, including parchment, vellum, mosaic, wall paintings and paper. All maps marking milestones in the cartography of Jerusalem are listed here following the cartographic histories of the city, from Titus Tobler and Reinhold Röhricht's studies in the 19th century to those of Hebrew University of Jerusalem academics :he:ריכב רובין|Rehav Rubin and Milka Levy-Rubin in recent decades. The article lists maps that progressed the cartography of Jerusalem before the rise of modern surveying techniques, showing how mapmaking and surveying improved and helped outsiders to better understand the geography of the city. Imaginary maps of the ancient city and copies of existing maps are excluded.
The Madaba Map is the oldest known map of Jerusalem, in the form of a mosaic in a Greek Orthodox Church. At least 12 maps survive from the Catholic mapmakers of the Crusades; they were drawn on vellum and mostly show the city as a circle. Approximately 500 maps are known between the late-1400s and the mid-1800s; the significant increase in number is due to the advent of the printing press. The first printed map of the city was drawn by Erhard Reuwich and published in 1486 by Bernhard von Breydenbach in his Peregrinatio in Terram Sanctam, based on his pilgrimage of 1483. Few of the mapmakers had travelled to Jerusalem – most of the maps were either copies of others' maps or were imaginary in nature. The first map based on actual field measurements was published in 1818 by the Czech mapmaker Franz Wilhelm Sieber. The first map based on modern surveying techniques was published by Charles Wilson in 1864–65 for the British Ordnance Survey.
Notable maps of Jerusalem
Early religious / pilgrimage maps (6th–7th centuries)
Crusader maps (12th–14th centuries)
The Crusader maps were first catalogued in the late 19th century by Reinhold Röhricht; he catalogued eight maps, which he labelled Brüssel, Copenhagen, Florenz?, Haag, München St. Omer, Paris and Stuttgart. Map was later identified as the Uppsala map, and map is the Arculf map. Today, at least 12 such maps are known.A majority of the crusader maps are known as "round maps”, showing the city as a perfect circle, considered to symbolize the “ideal city”. These maps have unique features, but they are all related; it is likely that there was an original prototype from which these maps were derived. Four of the earlier round maps are associated with the Gesta Francorum; it has been suggested that illustrating this text may have been the purpose of the prototype round map. All the round maps are east-facing, like the T and O maps of the world to which they show a number of similarities, have five gates in non-symmetrical locations, and show the actual basic street plan of Jerusalem. The maps show two central roads in the shape of a cross, likely to represent the Roman cardo and decumanus, with an additional street leading to Yehoshafat's Gate and – in most but not all – a fourth street starting at St. Stephen's Gate.
| Date | Title | Cartographer | Comments | Image |
| 1140s | Cambrai map | unknown | From the :fr: Médiathèque d'agglomération de Cambrai|Médiathèque d'agglomération de Cambrai. It is considered to be the most accurate of the Crusader maps, highly likely to be based on direct knowledge. The walls of the city are shown in the shape of a rhomboid, from an elevation perspective. The map provides names for gates and towers, shows some main streets, and marks the main buildings and churches. The Holy Sephulchre is shown in its new Crusader form and labelled "Anastasis", the Al Aqsa Mosque is labelled "Domus Militum Templi", and numerous eastern churches are shown – Mar Saba, Chariton's lavra, St George, St Abraham, St Bartholomew, and the Jacobite church of St Mary Magdalene. | |
| 1150 | Brussels map | unknown | A round map in decorative style with miniatures of pilgrims. The map is from the Royal Library of Belgium, dated to the mid 12th century. | |
| 1170 | Hague map | unknown | The most famous of eleven round Crusader maps. The map is in decorative style with miniatures of fighting crusaders. | |
| 1100s | Paris map | unknown | A round map with detailed pictures of buildings. It is one of four crusader maps with a connection to the Gesta Francorum, from a copy of the Liber Floridus held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France it carries part of the text from the Gesta Francorum around and within the map. Thought to be from the 12th century. | |
| 1100s | Uppsala map | unknown | Another of the four round maps with a connection to the Gesta Francorum. It is located in a manuscript between Robert the Monk's Historia Hierosolymitana and the Gesta Francorum, held in the Uppsala University Library. It was rediscovered in 1995. | |
| 1100s | Saint Omer map | unknown | A round map from a copy of the Gesta Francorum held in the French town of Saint-Omer. | |
| 1200 | London map | unknown | From a miscellaneous set of manuscripts in the British Library. It is another of the four round maps with a connection to the Gesta Francorum; it carries part of the text from the Gesta Francorum around and within the map. | |
| 1200 | Codex Harley map | unknown | From the British Library's Harleian Library. The map represents the itinerary of a pilgrim, with Jerusalem as its highlight. It is unrelated to the other round maps, as it has only four symmetrical gates, and has no crossroads. The map "has no pretense of accuracy", but rather presents "the author's conception of his journey". | |
| 1200s | Montpellier map | unknown | Held in the University of Montpellier library. The map is north-facing, is the only crusader map in a square shape, and includes a description of crusader forces arrayed outside the walls of the city. The sites identified on the map – various sites of the Passion of Jesus, the site where Helena found the cross, and the navel of the earth – are in locations "only remotely related to reality". | |
| 1250 | Matthew Paris map | Pilgrimage map from Chronica Majora. It is likely to have been based on a set of itineraries. | ||
| 1300s | Copenhagen map | unknown | A round map in northern European style. The annotations were probably made by Haukr Erlendsson. | |
| 1300s | Stuttgart map | unknown | A round map from the Württembergische Landesbibliothek. It was originally acquired from the Zwiefalten Abbey, and is thought to be from the 14th century. | |
| 1321 | Sanudo-Vesconte map | Published in Liber Secretorum. The work was intended to rekindle the spirit of the crusades. It is considered likely that the cartography dates from prior to the Crusaders' final loss of Jerusalem in 1244. The map focuses on the city's water supply. The map ”has no obvious precursor” in map form; it is thought to have used texts from Josephus and Burchard of Mount Sion. |