Cartographical evidence of efforts to develop Acre during the last decades of Ottoman rule: did the Ottomans neglect the city?

Analyzing routes in Ottoman Greater Syria using historical GIS: The 1849 Saida map

“…In terms of infrastructure, the Empire had ambitious plans to build new roads and railroads, connect the region to telegraph lines, develop a water infrastructure, and upgrade existing ports. In many cases, however, the Empire lacked the resources to carry out its plans and was obligated to award concessions to foreign companies to construct infrastructure projects in return for a share of the profits from their operation (Ben‐Bassat & Ben‐Artzi, 2016, 2018). The Ottoman archive contains numerous examples of development projects and concessions granted to foreign companies from the second half of the 19th century 1…”

“…Thus, while the literature examining the European cartography of Greater Syria in the 19th century has been accumulating, there is a substantial lack of information about Ottoman cartography. In the last few years, however, there has been increasing interest in Ottoman cartography and the valuable information Ottoman maps may contain about the imperial provinces (Ben‐Bassat & Ben‐Artzi, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019; Kark, 2004; Marom, 2018).…”

Intestinal Parasites in an Ottoman Period Latrine from Acre (Israel) Dating to the Early 1800s CE

“…At its height, the Ottoman Empire controlled large parts of south eastern Europe, the Near East, and the coast of North Africa. Acre was historically an important city in the Ottoman Empire until the early 19th century, when Beirut and Haifa were also used as major ports [2]. Combined with decades of conflict starting with the siege of Napoleon in 1799, conquest by Egypt in 1831, and re-conquering of Acre by the Ottomans in 1840, this significantly affected the city's prosperity in the early 19th century [3].…”