Old Maps of Jerusalem

Being the Holy City, Jerusalem was described throughout history in many books and treatises. In many of them the city was also depicted in maps and views. Some of these presented Jerusalem as it was really seen by pilgrims and travelers, while others presented the city in an imaginary manner, based on interpretations of the Holy Scriptures; many others, combined both realistic and imaginary elements. All of these were copied and imitated by many other artists and authors; hence the number of maps of Jerusalem is fairly large, starting with from the sixth century Madaba Mosaic map up to the early accurate maps drawn in the 19^th century.

This research project attempted to investigate several aspects:

• The differentiation between realistic and imaginary maps
• The differentiation between original maps and their copies
• Content analysis of detailed maps as a tool for understanding  the ideology encoded in them
• The development of the early modern accurate maps

A book in Hebrew, a book in English and many articles were the fruits of this project.