ABSTRACT
The original layout of the topographic map of Palestine was devised in 1933,1 dividing the First Series into fourteen sheets that covered the country north of latitude 31°. The sheets were planned along regular transverse strips, except for the Jerusalem and Jaffa sheets, which deviated from this standard. These two maps were larger than the others: each encompassed an area of 50×45 kilometres as opposed to the 45×45 kilometres of the other sheets. In this layout, the Finger of Galilee’ (Huleh Salient) was cut off north of Lake Huleh and included as an inset at the upper right-hand corner on the Safad sheet. The sheets overlapped by 5 kilometres with their contiguous western and southern neighbours. On the west the overlap was planned according to the coastline: except for the Rafah sheet, the southwestern corner of each of the western sheets was planned so as to fall on or near the coastline in order to avoid wasting map space on the Mediterranean. The Jaffa and Jerusalem maps overlapped even more with the adjacent sheets.
