The collision of Empires as seen from Istanbul: the border of British-controlled Egypt and Ottoman Palestine as reflected in Ottoman maps

This article analyses the historical and cartographical understanding of the creation of the border between Egypt and Ottoman Palestine - Israel's current southern border - by examining Ottoman maps from the period between the mid nineteenth century and World War I. These maps deal with different stages of the border's definition and demarcation, and shed light on the Ottoman view of the region and its borders, which differs considerably from the more widely known British perspective. Most of these maps were not produced to deal directly with the issue of the border, but when embedded within the broader Ottoman cartographic and geopolitical framework, provide crucial information which allows us to trace the process of border definition.