Abstract
This article focuses on twenty unpublished maps from the Ottoman archive in Istanbul, depicting requests to obtain concessions to search for oil and other inorganic minerals in the Judean Desert,near the Dead Sea and in the Northern Negev before and during WWI. It presents the concession maps, analyzes them, examines why they were produced in the first place and how they contribute to a better understanding of oil searches in the region during the late Ottoman period. The maps provide a new perspective on what is known from research in recent years about the Ottoman attempts to develop the region. They show that the Empire grasped the economic potential of extracting minerals, and hence made considerable efforts to utilize the minerals of the region,in addition to encouraging various forms of entrepreneurship, infrastructure and development projects. Nevertheless, there was often a huge disparity between the Empire’s ambitious plans and their actual implementation on the ground due to lack of funds, engineering problems, international conflicts and complications, as well as economic feasibility.
Translated title of the contribution | Cartographic Evidence from the Late Ottoman Period of Oil Concession Permits in the Judean Desert and the Northern Negev |
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Original language | Hebrew |
Pages (from-to) | 122-141 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | אופקים בגאוגרפיה |
Volume | 101-102 |
State | Published - 2022 |
IHP Publications
- ihp
- Geographic information systems
- Concessions
- Turkey -- History -- Ottoman Empire, 1288-1918
- Early maps
- Eretz Israel -- Maps
- Petroleum -- Prospecting
- Judean Desert
- Beersheba Region (Israel)
- Dead Sea (Israel and Jordan)
- Archives -- Turkey
- Eretz Israel -- History -- 1517-1917, Ottoman period