The Nile, Egypt and The Soudan, by James Wyld

This rare map is undated, but was advertised in an issue of The Economist in October 1884: “This map, which is stated to have been compiled from numerous original sources, is printed on a large scale in order to facilitate the following of the movements of our troops, and is extremely well suited to that purpose”.
The magazine refers here to the Mahdist War (ath-Thawra al-Mahdiyya), 1881-1899, which pitted Sudan against the Khedivate of Egypt. In 1884, Charles Gordon, governor of Sudan, considered that the Anglo-Egyptian presence in Sudan was too costly. He decided to evacuate all the troops from the region, but was trapped in Khartoum by the Mahdi’s army before being able to achieve it. After a siege of 131 days, the city fell in January 1885, which led to the massacre of Gordon and of the garrison.

As The Economist explains, the large-format format of the map allowed the British elite to follow the military events of the region, such as the so-called “Gordon Relief Expedition”, led by General Wolseley, who reached Khartoum barely two days after the fall of the city.

This map constitutes a notable example of the cartographic precision of its time. Particularly notable is the detailed representation of the River Nile, since the Nile was a vital route and a strategic resource of the first order in the region. The accuracy of its cartography would have been essential for military planning and logistics, by providing crucial information for navigation and troop movements.
From the second half of the 18th century, the new publishing techniques cheapened the cost of printing, and the European market saw the publication of a growing number of maps and plans devoted to specific political or military events, like this map. Unlike those included in atlases, they are usually rare, since interest in them declined quickly when the conflict or event to which they were linked ceased to occupy the public’s attention. Wyld’s map of Egypt and Sudan is no exception. We have located only one example put up for sale in the last 60 years, and barely four examples appear in WorldCat/OCLC.