Record added successfully
A Swiss researcher has revealed that European cartographic interest in the Levant dates back to at least the 16th century, with an ancient map pinpointing Petra’s exact location long before its famed 19th-century rediscovery.
In a recent email interview with The Jordan Times, Ulrich Bellwald noted that the earliest known map accurately depicting Petra—including its mountainous surroundings—was created in 1572 by Italian artist and engraver Bartolomeo Bonomi. The map, titled Portolano del Mediterraneo (Mediterranean Ports), was commissioned by Marcantonio Colonna (1534–1584), an Italian aristocrat serving the Spanish Crown.
Bellwald, intrigued by Bonomi’s lack of formal surveying expertise, questioned the sources behind the map’s creation. He theorized that Bonomi likely relied on Ottoman models, particularly since Colonna had fought in the 1571 Battle of Lepanto, where European Catholic forces defeated the Ottoman fleet.
The scholar pointed to Kitab-i-Bahriye (The Book of Navigation), a renowned Ottoman maritime atlas by Piri Reis, first published in 1521 and revised in 1525. After examining original cartographic drawings in Istanbul’s archives, Bellwald confirmed that Bonomi had replicated Piri Reis’s maps—copying not only the size and shape of coastal and inland cities but also their survey lines and place names.
“Piri’s work didn’t just document major ports; it also included inland cities like Petra and Damascus,” Bellwald explained. He added that obtaining a copy of Kitab-i-Bahriye would have been easy for Bonomi or Colonna, as “numerous copies existed in Europe’s great libraries.”
This discovery challenges the common narrative that Petra was “rediscovered” by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812. Bellwald emphasized that Petra’s location was already known among educated Europeans centuries earlier, thanks to Ottoman and Western cartographic exchanges.
Later editions of Piri Reis’s atlas incorporated maps by Italian geographers Battista Agnese and Jacopo Gastaldi, as well as Dutch cartographer Abraham Ortelius, highlighting a well-established collaboration between Ottoman and Western scholars.
Bellwald concluded that Burckhardt’s journey to Wadi Musa was likely deliberate: “He didn’t stumble upon Petra by chance—he went there knowing exactly where to look.”
This research sheds new light on Petra’s historical awareness in Europe, tracing its documented presence back to 16th-century Ottoman and European cartography.