The British have a rich history of mapping the Holy Land, from the first half of the nineteenth century onwards.
Modern cartographic work in Palestine received unprecedented stimulus by the foundation of the Palestine exploration Fund (PEF), an unofficial body which promoted the scientific research of the Holy Land and Middle East, including its Geography, Archaeology, Geology, Hydrology, Fauna & Flora.
Four cartographic major projects became the foundation for the modern mapping.
The first, Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem and Excavations in Jerusalem, the second The Survey of Western Palestine, a systematic topographic mapping of the entire country and the recording of its ancient remains, including 8 volumes of a Memoirs, the third, The Survey of Eastern Palestine (unconcluded) and the fourth, Ordnance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai.
The Royal engineer’s team of the Palestine Exploration Fund, were well trained on the use of new surveying methods of cartography and innovative technologies at that time, as photography, for scientific recording. The result was an extraordinary collection of data that remains to this day the basis of modern cartography of Israel.