Mapping Power: History of Landscape in the Jordan Valley

An excavation of the Jordan Valley’s hidden history, depicting how mapping has not only documented territorial disputes but actively shaped them.

For millennia, landscapes have been battlegrounds of power, history, and identity—nowhere more so than in the Jordan Rift Valley. In Mapping Power: History of Landscape in the Jordan Valley, Ben Gitai unearths the hidden forces that have shaped Naharayim/Al-Baqoura, a politically charged site at the crossroads of empire and conflict. Blending political geography and historical analysis, Gitai reveals how mapping and cartography have been wielded as tools of control by successive rulers, ranging from the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate to present-day territorial disputes.

Over one hundred and fifty years, this valley has been transformed by competing visions of land, water, and national identity, making it a microcosm of the enduring tensions in the Holy Land. Offering an intricate analysis of place and power, this book challenges conventional narratives of landscape history and exposes how maps do not merely document history but shape it. 

Ben Gitai is an architect who integrates the disciplines of territory, landscape, and architecture in his practice. He is the head coordinator at the Habitat Research Center at EPFL, where he currently leads the Atlas of Landscapes for the city of Paris.