Description

Lithograph in 2 colours, once folding into an unidentified pamphlet, guard to upper left corner (Good, some minor points of toning and some wear along old folds with tiny holes along fold in upper right), 60 x 46 cm.

The present map depicts the Southern Balkans, much of Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt and Western Arabia, and extends from Albania, in the northwest, all the way down to Mecca, in the southeast.  Its purpose is to depict all the regions’ main railways, plus the main roads and caravan routes. 

The map was clearly once bound into an unidentified pamphlet.  The map can be roughly dated as it shows the international boundaries in the Balkans as they were set in the wake of the First and Second Balkan Wars (1912-3), heading into World War I. 

The map shows the south-eastern portion of the line carrying the Orient Express into Istanbul (completed in 1888).  Crossing Anatolia towards Iraq is the yet uncompleted line of the Baghdad Railway, which opened the promise of the Berlin-Baghdad Express, a rapid link from the German capital into the heart of the Middle East.

Notably, the map features the entire line of the Hejaz Railway, which was completed from Damascus as far as Medina in 1908 (Mecca, the unrealized ultimate destination of the line, can be seen further south).

Additionally, the map depicts the numerous lines that the British had constructed in Egypt.