PEF Survey of Palestine#Eastern Palestine

As a result of the French survey work in Galilee in 1870, Charles Wilson joined the Topographical Department of the Intelligence Department of the War Office in London.{{sfn|Goren|2002|p=105}} In addition, the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) provided another strategic imperative for the British Government to ensure the completion of the survey work.{{sfn|Goren|2002|p=105}} Colonel Home of the British War Office wrote in May 1877: "If Russia occupies Turkish Armenia she will have the two valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris at her disposal and she will completely dominate the Gulf of Seuderum if indeed she does not occupy it. Syria especially the Valley of the Jordan will become of great importance as offering the easiest road for an advance on the Suez Canal—under such circumstances it is of the utmost importance that we should have good maps of the country."{{sfn|Moscrop|2000|p=119}}

John James Moscrop illustrated the nature of the involvement of the War Office in the survey work, in a detailed monograph. The success of the survey resulted from the War Office providing support to the PEF, and the PEF providing cover to the War Office.{{sfn|Goren|2002|p=105}} Haim Goren's review summarized it as follows:

Moscrop takes considerable pains to show how the different governmental bodies, particularly the War Office, were involved in all stages of the Survey of Western Palestine. He shows how Wilson was in practice serving as liaison between the government and the Palestine Exploration Fund's Executive Committee, of which he was a member. ... He also describes how general publication of the maps and memoirs was held back until the War Office had finished with them for its own purposes. Finally, Moscrop re-examines the payments made by the Fund to those involved in the survey. Revealingly, he finds that for most of the relevant period there is no mention of any payments for the salaries of the Royal Engineers. It has to be supposed that the money came from a quite different source-that from which the men's salaries had always come, namely the War Office in London.{{sfn|Goren|2002|p=105}}

The "Survey of Eastern Palestine" was abandoned partly due to a change of priority for the British Government, who became focused on the events building up to the British Conquest of Egypt (1882).{{sfn|Goren|2002|p=106}} Moscrop writes: "The abandonment of the Eastern Survey does demonstrate the close linkage between the War Office, the Intelligence Department, and the Fund and the fact that this survey like its predecessor, the Western Survey, was not an independent survey run by the fund."{{sfn|Moscrop|2000|p=135}}

The majority of the work of the survey was carried out by the Royal Engineers. In addition to the extensive maps, the Palestine Exploration Fund published three copious volumes of the field work conducted by Conder and Kitchener, known as The Survey of Western Palestine (Memoirs of the Tography, Orography, Hydrgraphy, and Archæology), wherein are detailed accounts of every hill range, stream, spring, village, town, ruin, and large buildings in Palestine, as also notes of every statement as to topography gathered by C.R. Conder from Jewish, Samaritan, Greek, Latin, and Norman French notices of Palestine, with contributions touching on the topography of Palestine found in Josephus, the Bible, Pliny, Strabo, the Rabbinical writers, the Samaritan chroniclers, the Onomasticon, the early Christian pilgrims, and the Crusading and Arab chronicles.Conder, Major C.R. (n.d.), pp. 219–220 A fourth work published by E.H. Palmer, and which includes Arabic nomenclature collected by Conder and Kitchener for the PEF, is The Survey of Western Palestine - Arabic and English Name Lists.

The PEF surveyors, led by Charles Warren, carried out survey and excavation work in Jerusalem between spring 1867 and April 1870, building on the 1864-65 Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem.PEF Survey of Palestine, 3. Jerusalem, p.117-119

During his three periods of residence in the region (1865–72, 1873–74 and 1881–82), Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau led a few discrete pieces of survey work that were carried out for and published by the PEF.PEF Survey of Palestine, 3. Jerusalem, p.293

The initial survey group arrived in Jaffa in early November 1871 led by Captain Richard Warren Stewart and including a surveyor named George Armstrong;{{Cite journal |last=C |first=J. D. |date=1910-04-01 |title=Memoir of George Armstrong |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1179/peq.1910.42.2.97 |journal=Palestine Exploration Quarterly |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=97–98 |language=EN |doi=10.1179/peq.1910.42.2.97|url-access=subscription }} Charles Francis Tyrwhitt-Drake joined the group on 17 December, around which time Captain Stewart fell ill and returned to Britain.PEF Survey of Palestine, 1.I. Galilee, p.23 23 year-old Lieutenant Claude Reignier Conder joined to lead the group on 17 July 1872, prior to which 560 sqm had been surveyed.PEF Survey of Palestine, 1.I. Galilee, p.23-24

An aggregate total of 1,250 sqm had been surveyed by the end of December 1872, 1,800 by 8 June 1873, 2,300 sqm by 22 January 1874, and 3,000 by 23 April 1874. Tyrwhitt-Drake died from fever (thought to be malaria) on 23 June 1874,PEF Survey of Palestine, 1.I. Galilee, p.24-26 and on 19 Nov 1874, 24 year-old Lieutenant Herbert Kitchener joined to replace him.PEF Survey of Palestine, 1.I. Galilee, p.26-27

3,500 sqm had been surveyed by 8 December 1874, and 4,700 by 30 June 1875. The survey was suspended for 15 months following an incident in July 1875 when its members were attacked near Safad by a group of Algerians. Kitchener returned to the region, completing the remainder of the survey between 27 February 1877 and 27 September, with a total surveyed area of 6,040 sqm.PEF Survey of Palestine, 1.I. Galilee, p.27-29

The survey was carried out between August and October 1881 by a team led by Captain Conder. They surveyed 510 sqm of barely populated land, covering an area which included Amman, then an almost uninhabited set of Roman ruins, and the recently repopulated Madaba.PEF Survey of Eastern Palestine, 1889, page v

The survey was led at different times by four senior Royal Engineers:James, Frances W., "[http://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/?p=1021 A Milestone in Palestinian Archaeology]" Expedition Magazine 7.4 (1965), Penn Museum: "... the party at various times being commanded by Capt. C.W. Wilson (later Col. Sir Charles); Capt. C. Warren (later General Sir Charles); Lt. C.R. Conder (later Col.); and Lt. H.H. Kitchener (later General Lord Kitchener of Khartoum)."{{cite book|last=Wharton|first=Annabel Jane|title=Selling Jerusalem: Relics, Replicas, Theme Parks|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P1_BBK-LsesC&pg=PA202|date=15 August 2006|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-89422-5|pages=202|quote=Among the Royal Engineers working for the Fund in the mid-1860s were Charles Wilson, Charles Warren, and Horatio Herbert Kitchener, all of whom contributed so greatly to empire-building that they were later titled. Kitchener was distinguished for his military service in Egypt and South Africa and during World War I. Warren also served in South Africa and Egypt; he was police commissioner in London at the time of Jack the Ripper’s murderous spree. Wilson, in addition to his work in Palestine, surveyed the forty-ninth parallel as the border between the United States and Canada and laid the institutional foundations for British intelligence.}}

• Captain Wilson (later Col. Sir Charles Wilson, who in 1885 led the final stage of the Nile Expedition);{{sfn|Raugh|2004|p=341}}
• Captain Warren (later General Sir Charles Warren, who in 1888 was the Commissioner of the London Police Force during the Jack the Ripper murder investigation);{{sfn|Raugh|2004|p=337}}
• Lieutenant Conder (later Colonel Conder, who became a prolific author on Ancient Middle Eastern history, and almost a century after his death was accused of being Jack the Ripper);{{cite book|last=Sunderland|first=David|title=These Chivalrous Brothers: The Mysterious Disappearance of the 1882 Palmer Sinai Expedition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SggsCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT278|date=29 January 2016|publisher=John Hunt Publishing|isbn=978-1-78535-243-0|pages=278–}} and
• Lieutenant Kitchener (later Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, and the British Secretary of State for War at the beginning of World War I).{{sfn|Raugh|2004|p=202}}

file:PEF Survey of Western Palestine Key Map.png|Key to 26 maps

file:PEF Survey of Western Palestine composite.jpg|Composite map

file:PEF Survey of Western Palestine composite showing Natural Drainage and Mountain Ranges.jpg| Natural Drainage and Mountain Ranges

file:PEF Survey of Western Palestine showing the New Testament.jpg| New Testament

File:PEF Survey of Western Palestine showing the Old Testament.jpg| Old Testament

The twenty-six sheets of the map

File:PEF Survey of Eastern Palestine.jpg

file:Charles Warren's Party in Jerusalem.JPG |Charles Warren's surveying party in Jerusalem

File:Palestine Exploration Fund Map - Triangulation network.jpg |Triangulation network

File:Writing utensils, a box, Compass and Navigation Device that were used by the PEF surveyors.JPG | Writing utensils, a box, Compass and Navigation Device that were used by the PEF surveyors

File:Theodolite and barometer that were used by the Palestine Exploration Fund surveyors.JPG |Theodolite and barometer that were used by the Palestine Exploration Fund surveyors

• [https://archive.org/details/introductiontosu00saunrich Introduction], by Trelawney Saunders (1881)
• [https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp01conduoft 1.I. Galilee], by Conder and Kitchener (1881)
• [https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp02conduoft 1.II. Samaria], by Conder and Kitchener (1882)
• [https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp03conduoft 1.III. Judaea], by Conder and Kitchener (1883)
• [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.ah6rqh 2. Special Papers on Topography, Archæology, Manners and Customs, Etc], contributed by Wilson, Warren, Conder, Kitchener, Edward Henry Palmer; Mr. George Smith; Rev. Greville Chester; Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau (1881)
• [https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00warruoft 3. Jerusalem], by Warren and Conder (1884)
• [https://archive.org/details/planselevationss00warr Plans, elevations, sections, etc. shewing the results of the excavations at Jerusalem, 1867-70], by Warren (1884)
• [https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00trisuoft 4. The Fauna and Flora of Palestine], by Henry Baker Tristram (1885)
• [https://archive.org/details/surveywesternpa00hullgoog 5. Memoir on the Physical Geology and Geography], by Edward Hull (1886)
• [https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft Arabic and English Name Lists], Edward Henry Palmer (1881)
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=H6A_AAAAYAAJ General Index], by Henry C. Stewardson (1888)

• [https://archive.org/details/surveyofeasternp00conduoft Survey of Eastern Palestine], by Conder (1889)

• {{cite book|author=Palestine Exploration Fund|title=Our Work in Palestine: Being an Account of the Different Expeditions Sent Out to the Holy Land by the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund Since the Establishment of the Fund in 1865|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=54MUAAAAYAAJ|year=1873|publisher=Bentley|isbn=9780790524207}}
• {{cite book|last=Warren|first=Sir Charles|title=Underground Jerusalem: An Account of Some of the Principal Difficulties Encountered in Its Exploration and the Results Obtained. With a Narrative of an Expedition Through the Jordan Valley and a Visit to the Samaritans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=60ULAAAAIAAJ&pg=PR3|year=1876|publisher=R. Bentley and son}}
• {{cite book|last=Conder|first=Claude Reignier|author-link=Claude Reignier Conder|title=Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ltiQteXzxNIC|year=1878|publisher=R. Bentley & Son}}
• {{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Sir Charles William|title=Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt|year=1881–83|publisher=D. Appleton|title-link=Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hull |first1=Edward |title=Mount Seir, Sinai, and Western Palestine: Being a Narrative of a Scientific Expedition |date=1885 |publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund / Richard Bentley & Son |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=74MUAAAAYAAJ |language=en}}
• {{cite book|last=Besant|first=Sir Walter|title=Twenty-one Years' Work in the Holy Land: A Record and Summary, June 22, 1865-June 22, 1886|url=https://archive.org/details/twentyoneyearswo00paleuoft/page/n7|year=1889|publisher=A. P. Watt}}
• {{cite book|last=Conder|first=Claude Reignier|title=Heth and Moab: Explorations in Syria in 1881 and 1882|url=https://archive.org/details/hethmoabexplorat00conduoft/page/n9|year=1889|publisher=Watt}}

• {{cite book |author-last=Conder |author-first=Major C.R. |author-link=Claude Reignier Conder|title=Palestine|url=https://archive.org/details/palestine00cond |publisher=Dodd, Mead & Co. |location=New York|year=n.d.|language=en |oclc=427481948}}
• {{cite book|last=Moscrop|first=John James|title=Measuring Jerusalem: The Palestine Exploration Fund and British Interests in the Holy Land|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KzN2_eaDhz4C|date=1 January 2000|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-7185-0220-1}}
• {{citation|first=Rupert |last=Chapman|url=https://www.academia.edu/3673054|title=British Archaeology and the Holy Land in the 19th Century: sources and a framework for study'|journal= Britain and the Holy Land 1800–1914}}
• {{cite journal|first=Lorenzo|last=Kamel|author-link=Lorenzo Kamel|date=2014|url=http://www.brismes.ac.uk/nmes/archives/1263|title=The Impact of 'Biblical Orientalism' in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Palestine|journal=New Middle Eastern Studies|volume=4|doi=10.29311/nmes.v4i0.2641|doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 |doi-access=free}}
• {{cite book|last1=Schelhaas|first1=Bruno|last2=Faehndrich|first2=Jutta|last3=Goren|first3=Haim|title=Mapping the Holy Land: The Foundation of a Scientific Cartography of Palestine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XhKMDwAAQBAJ|date=28 February 2017|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-0-85772-785-5}}
• {{cite book|last=Silberman|first=Neil Asher|author-link=Neil Asher Silberman|title=Digging for God and Country: Exploration, Archeology, and the Secret Struggle for the Holy Land, 1799–1917|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XFzWAAAAMAAJ|year=1990|publisher=Doubleday|isbn=978-0-385-41077-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Foliard|first=Daniel|title=Dislocating the Orient: British Maps and the Making of the Middle East, 1854–1921|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mVR7DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA109|date=13 April 2017|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-45147-3}}
• {{cite journal|title=Sacred, but Not Surveyed: Nineteenth-Century Surveys of Palestine|first=Haim|last=Goren|journal=Imago Mundi|volume=54|issue=1|pages=87–110|date=2002|jstor=1151507|doi=10.1080/03085690208592960|s2cid=140702955}}
• {{cite book|last=Masalha|first=Nur|author-link=Nur Masalha|title=Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H6K9AQAACAAJ|year=2019|publisher=Zed|isbn=978-1-78699-272-7}}
• {{cite book|last=Raugh|first=Harold E.|title=The Victorians at War, 1815–1914: An Encyclopedia of British Military History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HvE_Pa_ZlfsC&pg=PA341|year=2004|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-925-6}}

{{reflist}}

{{commons category|PEF Survey of Palestine}}

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Category:19th-century maps and globes

Category:Old maps of Jerusalem

Category:Palestine Exploration Fund

Category:1880s works

Category:Maps of Palestine (region)