The Lost Maps of the Caliphs

Al-Khwarizmi’s Nile Map

Based on Khwarizmi’s original map which uses a mathematical geography approach, this map trails the course of the Nile River from the Mountain of the Moon in the East Africa up to the Mediterranean Sea and identifies important cities, mountains, valleys, and territories on both sides of the river along the way. The map is divided horizontally by lines: the Equator, the first, second and third provinces.

We modified the map to present the contemporary urban development on the Nile islands of Qursaya and al-Warraq in Cairo. This contentious development will construct a “city and a world trade center” on these agricultural river islands; our map includes embroidered contemporary buildings that will be built as well as the trees that will be lost to construction.