Down memory lane : geographies of Maltese coastal villages at the turn of the 20th century

Abstract

At the turn of the 20th century Malta had been a hundred years under British rule and the cartographic knowledge developed in the United Kingdom through the Ordnance Survey, was used in Malta to represent the rural, urban and maritime landscapes. In addition, the Maltese landscape had already been drawn at various scales during the preceding centuries. These included the identification of Malta’s centrality in the Mediterranean, initially through Herodotus’ maps, then through Piri Reis’s cartographies and subsequent portolan charts. However the detailed surveying and mapping ensued with the Knights of St John from the sixteenth century and the British as from the nineteenth with engineers, surveyors, cartographers, allied technical and other staff using the necessary equipment and accompanied by local personnel prepared and updated terrestrial maps and bathymetric charts. A geographical inventory was thus developed and showed physical attributes, military installations and defences, roads and also monitored urban growth. [Excerpt from the Introduction]