ISTHMUS OF SUEZ EGYPT 1857 ERHARD UNUSUAL ANTIQUE ORIGINAL LITHOGRAPHIC MAP

Description: Striking and highly detailed very interesting original colored lithographic map of the Isthmus of Suez from 1857, twelve years before the official inauguration of the famous Canal (which took place in 1869). This is a valuable historical cartographic document illustrating the project, approved by the Viceroy of Egypt, to connect the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea.
 
The route shows the confluence of the two seas and the connection of the Nile River with Lake Timsah, as established by the International Commission in 1857.
 
The route of the Canal: a dark vertical line cuts the isthmus from north to south, starting from Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea ("Mer Méditerranée") and arriving at Suez on the Red Sea ("Mer Rouge"), crossing the intervening salt lakes.
 
Panoramic View (bottom center): Contains an insert entitled "Panoramic View of the Isthmus of Suez and the Two Seas Canal Project." This section offers a striking 19th-century three-dimensional aerial perspective, demonstrating the canal's visual impact on the Egyptian desert.
 
Hydrography and topography: On the left are the eastern branches of the Nile Delta, the proposed freshwater irrigation canals and the surrounding marshes, essential for supplying drinking water to the construction sites in the desert.

Date: 1857 ( dated )

Dimension: Paper size approx.: cm 31,2 x 42,4

Condition: Very strong and dark impression on good paper. Sheet old original colored. Small foxing and browning. Map folded. Conditions are as you can see in the images.

Mapmaker: Georges Erhard Schièble (1832-1880) has been a German printer active in Paris during the middle to late 19th Century.