An inventory of the map holdings of American overseas research centers around the Mediterranean area was conducted during 2004 and 2005 and, as of June 2005, the inventories of the participating centers were complete. In addition, this website features an exhibition of sixteen rare maps curated by Leonora Navari from these inventories. Inventory data has been added to the DLIR catalog.

• American Academy in Rome (AAR)
  The AAR map collection spans a variety of materials from the mid-16^th  to the 20^th centuries with emphasis on Italy and in particular the city of Rome and its environs. The rare book room contains early plans of the city by Duperac (1574), Boissard (1597-1628), Falda (1676), and Piranesi (ca.1770).  There are detailed 19^th c. maps of the Via Appia, Latium (Latzio), and the Roman campagna, and General Moltke’s map of Rome and environs published in 1847. The many interesting 20^th c. maps of Italy range in scale from 1:25,000 to 1:1,500,000.


• American Center of Oriental Research (Amman) (ACOR)
  ACOR has a fine collection of maps of the Middle East, mostly of Jordan and Syria. Among the most important is the map of Jordan in 144 sheets, 1:25,000. Other interesting maps include the series of British Admiralty charts of the eastern Mediterranean, one of the most complete to be found in the entire eastern Mediterranean region.


• W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (Jerusalem) (AIAR)
  The AIAR map collection is extensive and includes historical materials as well as modern maps, ranging from biblical archaeology to contemporary political developments, and it covers most of the Middle East. Notable maps include those from the Survey of Western Palestine, 1880, and the Survey of Sinai, 1869. The collection includes modern maps of Palestine and Israel in all scales, especially the map of Palestine, 1:20,000.


• American Institute for Maghrib Studies (Tunis) (CEMAT)
  The CEMAT-Tunis map collection consists for the most part of a small number of standard military maps of Tunisia and other parts of North Africa, as well as three antiquarian maps of Tunisian harbors. The maps of Tunisia and Morocco range from scales of 1:50,000 to 1:200,000. Of particular interest are two maps published in 1943: a German map of Tunisia in a scale of 1:50,000 and a map of French North Africa in a scale of 1:500,000 published by the U.S. Army Map Service.


• American Institute for Maghrib Studies (Tangier) (TALM)
  The TALM map collection could be used to write a history of the cartography of North Africa. It consists of maps of North Africa from the 15^th to the 20^th centuries and includes material by Ortelius, Mercator, Janssonius, and other well known figures from the world of cartographic science and publishing. Among many interesting maps we may single out a number of town plans of Tangier which document the development of the city.


• American Research Center in Egypt (Cairo) (ARCE)
  The ARCE map collection is surprising. For the most part it consists of maps of Egypt of general interest, and yet at the same time it includes several very important and unusual items. Note the maps of Egypt, in their original state, prepared by Napoleon’s engineers who accompanied the French army to Egypt in 1798, the map of the Islamic monuments of Cairo published in 1950, and the very interesting map of the central Cairo sewage system, 1929.


• American Research Institute in Turkey (Ankara) (ARIT-A)
  The map collection of ARIT-A consists for the most part of military maps of Turkey. These range from scales of 1:200,000 to 1:800,000. Other maps include a set of Tactical Plotage charts for the Balkans and the Middle East.


• American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Blegen Library (ASCSA-B)
  The Blegen Library of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens has some fine maps of Greece, particularly of Attica, and a few unusual map productions such as the atlas of the Greek Revolution by the Russian philhellene Petrov. The Library also has a large collection of military maps of the Balkans and the Levant.


• American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Gennadius Library (ASCSA-G)
  The Gennadius Library possesses an outstanding map collection of materials on Greece, the Balkans and Turkey. This collection spans a period from the late 15th century to the 20th century and contains manuscript as well as printed maps by noted cartographers and map publishers. Among many important maps may be noted the series of island maps in the Ionian and Aegean seas from a 15^th c. manuscript of Buondelmonti’s Liber Insularum, an early 19^th c. chart of the Aegean by Nicolas Kefalas (possibly the first printed Greek nautical chart), and numerous maps concerned with the political development of the Balkan states during the late 19^th century. 

  o ASCSA-G, 15th Century

  o ASCSA-G, 16th Century

  o ASCSA-G, 17th Century

  o ASCSA-G, 18th Century

  o ASCSA-G, 19th Century

  o ASCSA-G, 20th Century

  o ASCSA-G, no date

• Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (Nicosia) (CAARI)
  The CAARI map collection consists of rich source material for much of the Eastern Mediterranean, together with general maps of almost the entire world. Emphasis is naturally on maps of Cyprus, which include, among others, the rare Kitchener map of Cyprus in 15 sheets, detailed city plans of Nicosia, and maps of Cyprus in scales from 1:5,000 to 1:500,000. Among many maps of special interest we mention two maps of the Western Sovereign Base at Akrotiri peninsula.