MIDDLE EAST – ‘Proposed Trans-Desert Railway Haifa-Baghdad’ [thus titled in manuscript on map]. Turkey, Syria and Iraq (Mesopotamia) with Transcaucasia. London: George Philip & Son Ltd, [c.1930].

MIDDLE EAST – ‘Proposed Trans-Desert Railway Haifa-Baghdad’ [thus titled in manuscript on map]. Turkey, Syria and Iraq (Mesopotamia) with Transcaucasia. London: George Philip & Son Ltd, [c.1930].

Very rare map showing the route of a proposed Haifa-Baghdad railway that was never completed. We are only able to trace two copies in institutions: National Archives, Kew, and Oxford. The British contemplated building a railway connecting the Mediterranean with the capital of Iraq in the 1920s, ostensibly to shore up their imperial rule, support the British-backed Arab government of Iraq, and secure the oil pipeline already running from the Mosul oilfields to Haifa. The British were also aware that, with the development of air warfare, the Suez Canal could be easily attacked in a time of war, and alternative military routes to cross the Middle East to access India were required. However, a series of economic difficulties trumped political and military expediency, and with the outbreak of the Second World War, the dream of a trans-Middle East rail service evaporated.

Octavo (190 x 105mm). Folding lithographic map, with manuscript additions showing built and planned railway routes, colour-coded to show the differing gauges, on a scale of 55 miles = one inch (1:3,500,000), mounted on linen and folded within original green cloth binding, 2pp. of publisher’s ads pasted onto front free endpaper and verso of map (cloth lightly soiled).

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