ABSTRACT
One important result of the cartographic activity was that historians of Trans jordan, especially those concerned with biblical and classical history, turned their attention increasingly to the identification on the ground of sites named in the ancient sources. At present there are countless maps for Jordan relating to social, economic, agricultural, mineral, geological, political, military, religious, and other matters. This brief survey of the mapping of Jordan through two millennia shows that much of the extant mapping from past centuries derived from religious and political needs. So in the early centuries the organisational demands of empire resulted in the Peutinger map, and the importance of making pilgrimages to biblical sites led to the creation of the Madeba mosaic map. The maps shows that historical and religious interest and political and military concerns continue to provide serious motivation for the cartography of the region, and that both religious and academic interests have benefited enormously from political and military requirements.
