Mapping Power
Medias
About
Humans have always shaped and been shaped by the landscapes they inhabit. Landscapes bear witness to the earth’s geological past and the trajectories of human civilizations. Land and water have been a nexus of power struggles for millennia.
Ben Gitai takes as a case study a site of emblematic biopolitical significance: Naharayim/ Al-Baqoura in the Jordan Rift Valley. Adopting a hybridized approach at the intersection of landscape architecture, political geography and history, he excavates this site, revealing in intricate detail how cartography and maps have been instrumentalized by successive power regimes – Ottoman, British, and Israeli Jordanian – and how this instrumentalization has transformed the landscape over the past 150 years. What emerges is a story of the Jordan Valley that encompasses competing visions and aspirations for the development of the Holy Land.
“Ben Gitai’s work goes well beyond the boundaries of the history of landscape architecture conservatively understood, and sheds light on important aspects of political history, revealing in the most precise, undisputable manner the complex networks through which a territory is surveyed, represented, appropriated and disputed.” Jean-Louis Cohen
Content
- Introduction – Chronomapping / Key Terminology
- I / DOMESTICATED LANDSCAPE. The Ottoman Imperial Period (1858–1917)
- Territory : Imperial Power – Administrative Division / Land Registry / Land Laws / Water Utilization
- Cartography : Techniques of Land Representation – Macro-cartography Surveys / Cadastral Surveys System / Hejaz Railway Surveys
- Terrain : Infrastructure Development – Infrastructure and Regional Development / Construction of the Hejaz Railway / Formation of the Jisr el Majami Site / New Agricultural Systems
- II / CAPTIVE LANDSCAPE. British Mandate Period (1918–1948)
- Territory : Mandatory Power – Demarcation / Zionist Visions / The Jordan Concession / Hamiph’al Hazioni
- Cartography : New Ordinance System – Geographical Delimitation and Mapping of Palestine / Trigonometric Survey / Hydraulic and Land Survey
- Terrain : Captive Waters – Breaking the Natural Equilibrium / Zero Canal, Reservoir, and Island / Industrial Modern Architecture / Transportation Development / Modern Irrigation / Exotic Flora
- III / BURIED LANDSCAPE. Israel and Jordan National Period (1948–1994)
- Territory : State Power – 1948-1949: War of 1948 / 1949-1994: Border Security / 1994: Peace Treaty
- Cartography : Bilateral Mapping Surveys – The Hebrew Map / Hydrological Surveys / Mapping Water Regimes
- Terrain : Water Burial – Israel’s National Water Carrier Project / The Jordanian Ghor Canal Project / Agriculture and Irrigation / The Depletion of the Jordan River at the Naharayim Site
- Epilogue : The Fourth Bridge
- List of maps
- Bibliography
- Acknowledgment
- Credits
Details
Publisher: EPFL Press English Imprint
Published: 7 january 2025
Edition: 1st edition
Media: eBook [ePub], Book
Pages count eBook [ePub]: 192
Pages count Book: 192
Format (in mm) Book: 220 x 220
Size: 350 MB (ePub)
Weight (in grammes): 590
Language(s): English
EAN13 eBook [ePub]: 9782832322888
EAN13 Book: 9782889156726
