A provisional guide to German military topographic map series of Ottoman Asia in the First World War

Abstract. In acknowledgment that no war can be fought without maps, German military cartography between 1915 and 1918 gradually extended its cartographic involvement in the Ottoman theaters of Sinai, Mesopotamia and Palestine. By the end of the Great War, six topographical map series had been specially produced: Operationskarte in 1:800,000, Karte des türkisch-ägyptischen Grenzgebietes in 1:250,000, Karte von Mesopotamien (und Syrien) in 1:400,000, Karte von Nordbabylonien in 1:200,000, and Karte von Palästina in three scales 1:100,000, 1:50,000, and 1:25,000. The paper makes the first attempt on a carto-bibliographical appraisal of these map series.