About antique Holy Land maps 

Historically, there have probably been more maps made of the Holy Land than any other part of the world.

The oldest extant map of the Holy land is the Madaba Mosaic in Jordan. Medieval World maps showed Jerusalem at the centre. It was common practise to insert maps of the Holy Land into Bibles. The introduction of printing greatly increased the volume of maps, and in some atlases there were a number of different versions.

The Priest Christian von Adrichom (1533-1585) published his “Theatrum Terrae Sanctae” in 1592. This included a large map of the Holy Land and nine others showing the location of the tribes of Israel and a detailed plan of Jerusalem. This popular format was repeated by many other cartographers, including Thomas Fuller in his Pisgah-Sight of Palestine published 1650. The map of Issachar I have for sale above is an example. Jerusalem is of course a very popular acquisition and I have a fine selection of antique maps and landscape prints of Jerusalem including the City of David, Solomon’s temple, the Mount of Olives, Via Dolorosa and the Garden of Gethsemane.

Many of the maps show journeys such as the passage of the Red Sea, Journey in the Wilderness, Travels of St Paul. There are also maps showing the tribes of Israel.