PALMER & TRITTON, CONSULTING ENGINEERS. Haifa-Baghdad Railway. Survey 1930-1931. Report and Estimates. Volume I - Report.

by RENDEL

£4,800 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

RENDEL, PALMER TRITTON, CONSULTING ENGINEERS. Haifa-Baghdad Railway. Survey 1930-1931. Report and Estimates. Volume I - Report. London. [1932]. The Report volume only (the Estimates volume being even rarer), folio. Original two-tone pebble-grained cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt; pp. 3, [3], ix, 222, with 10 colour-printed maps, five of which very large and folding, bound at the end within numbered tabs, the other five full-page, one black and white map of the Arabian peninsula showing pilgrim routes in text on p. 125, 10 leaves of photographic plates printed on both recto and verso, folding longitudinal section; very light rubbing to extremities, tabs a little damaged and now repaired, one leaf with repaired short marginal tears, otherwise a very good copy; provenance : withdrawn from the library of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO; stamp inside front cover). Very rare report by the engineers tasked with surveying possible routes for the proposed Haifa-Baghdad railway, complete with many large folding maps. In the 1920s, the British contemplated building a railway connecting the Mediterranean with the capital of Iraq, ostensibly to shore up imperial rule, support the British-backed Arab government of Iraq, and secure the oil pipeline already running from the Mosul oilfields to Haifa. The British were also aware that, with the development of air warfare, the Suez Canal could be easily attacked in a time of war, and alternative military routes to cross the Middle Eas

• Binding: Hardcover

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