Description

Helmuth Karl Bernhard von MOLTKE (1800-1891).

[Map of the northern fortified part of the Bosphorus from the Hissar Fortresses to the lighthouses on the Black Sea, commissioned by His Highness Sultan Mahmud II. Surveyed with a plane table at a scale of 1:25,000 in 1836-37 by Baron von Moltke].

Berlin: Simon Schropp & Comp., 1849.

Moltke’s Mapping of Istanbul and Its Surroundings

In the mid-1830s, Constantinople (Istanbul) was a bustling metropolis with over 600,000 residents, characterized by chaotic streets, wooden buildings, and steep hills. Despite its grandeur, the city was vulnerable to fire and disease, reflecting a more medieval than modern vibe. Sultan Mahmud II (reigned 1808-39) was a reformer who eliminated the conservative Janissaries in 1826 and sought to modernize the empire. He faced challenges, including Russian occupation in 1833 during the war of 1828-9, but, after overcoming these threats, he initiated military reforms.

As it happened, in 1835, Captain Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke (1800-91), considered to be one of the great rising stars of the Prussian Army, was passing though Istanbul as part of a six-moth sabbatical. Somehow, he was given an audience with Mahmud II, who was so impressed that he asked Moltke to remain in Istanbul as a special advisor to train the Turkish officer corps in modern techniques of training and warfare.

One of Mahmud II’s dreams was to redevelop Istanbul as a modern capital. While the most important old edifices and monuments would be preserved, he favoured the idea of building grand new, straight avenues across the city to improve transportation and sanitation. Realizing such a plan would also greatly improve Istanbul’s military preparedness. The recent Russian occupation proved that it was so difficult to deploy troops across the city that it was rendered virtually indefensible in the event of a siege.

However, no precise trigonometric survey of Istanbul and its environs existed. Some decent maps, based and surveys conducted by archaic methods, were available, but these works were not adequate for facilitating a new masterplan for the city.

The sultan commissioned Moltke to conduct the first systematic scientific survey of Istanbul, as well as the Bosporus and Dardanelles. Throughout 1836 and 1837, Moltke led teams of Turkish army engineers to meticulously map the area to exacting standards. Moltke’s surviving correspondence reveals that he approached this task with a perfectionist’s rigor, making it an immense undertaking.
In his letters, Helmuth von Moltke (1800-1891) frequently mentions and describes his travels to the Bosporus, where he surveyed the coasts to map the strait. The manuscript map he returned to Berlin with was noted in contemporary documents for its rich detail, showing all the defensive architecture and the number of cannons located in the fortresses.(GÜL – LAMB, 2004, pp. 429). Unfortunately, these fine details were lost on the printed map.

We could trace about 8 examples in European institutions and one example housed at the Harvard Library. The map only rarely appears on the market.

References: OCLC 902468668, 556666090, 1262870480, 300581501, 1078620494; Cf.: MURAT GÜL and RICHARD LAMB. “Mapping, Regularizing and Modernizing Ottoman Istanbul: Aspects of the Genesis of the 1839 Development Policy.” Urban History, vol. 31, no. 3, 2004, pp. 429. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44613501. Accessed 20 Oct. 2025.