400 x 460 mm. Plaster relief plan of the city in original hand colour. Scale: 1:5,000 (millimetre to metre) for distances and 1:2,500 for height. Contained in the original wooden and cardboard box, imitating a book. Half cloth over marbled boards with spine-labels. All edges covered in marbled paper coating. With an index mounted to the inside of the cover. Exceptional three-dimensional model of Jerusalem: the fifth edition of this rare relief plan showing the principal landmarks of the city, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Via Dolorosa, and the Mount of Olives, as well as other places of worship, cemeteries, hospitals, hammams, schools, grottos, and the Pasha's palais. Heightened in blue, green, orange, yellow and brown. With a total of 215 labeled places of interest that are further detailed in the mounted index. - The plan was prepared by the French mathematician and surveyor Charles Muret, who made one of the first representations of a projected canal across the Isthmus of Panama around 1881, as part of the ultimately unsuccessful French venture to build the Panama canal. Muret's plaster cast of the topography of Panama was shown at the 1885 World Exhibition in Antwerp and was awarded a gold medal. In addition to the relief plan of Jerusalem, Muret created similar plans of Paris, Athens and the English Channel. - Small pieces of plaster chipped in a few places. Upper cover somewhat soiled, hinges cracked. Paper coating and cloth starting to peel off in places; fragments of spine-labels lacking. An uncommon specimen of French mapmaking, offering a glimpse of the Holy City and its topology towards the end of the 19th century. OCLC 659770835.
