ABSTRACT
The history of the connection of Palestine with the British Imperial survey system can be divided into two periods: the pre-Mandate period and the time of the British Mandate. In the first period the people of Palestine hardly had any interest in the mapping of their country, and British surveyors worked there for scholarly as well as for political and Imperial strategic ends. The second period commenced with the British as conquerors and continued as trustees with a mandate for the administration of Palestine. At that time Palestine was in urgent need of mapping, and the Mandate government was hard put to meet the demand. The Royal Engineers, the Admiralty, the Ordnance Survey, the GSGS, the military field survey units, and the Palestine Survey Department-each in turn was involved in the modern mapping of the country, and throughout more than a century, from 1841 to 1948, created a rich and varied cartographic continuity. The country’s cartographic attraction to the British has raised the question whether their motivation was colonialist or had the best interest of Palestine at heart.1
