Cartography of major urban settlements on Saudi Arabian Peninsula between 18th -20th centuries

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a urban morphological analysis of the transformation of Saudi Arabian cities from the late 18th century onwards through a cartographical urban inventory as its basis. The paper focuses on the cartographical information about the major cities in the Saudi Arabian Peninsula associated with the period between late 18th and early 20th centuries. This study was mainly conducted as a survey through the archives that have hitherto been kept closed for research purposes in Turkey. Therefore, a considerable part of sound and concrete information and evidence on Saudi Arabian town planning and urban design, particularly during the Ottoman era, was missing. This paper intends not only to make an inventory of the available maps and plans produced during the period between late 18th and early 20th centuries available in the Ottoman Archives of Turkey, but also to analyze this cartographical information through methods of the discipline of urban morphology and derive basic principles of transformation for Saudi Arabian cities between the late 18th century and early 20th century.