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Sinior Demirel's Diary

Historical Map of Salmas

A reconstructed map of the Salmas Plain, Kohneh Shahr, Dilman and the surrounding settlements, based on a comparison of historical maps and sources from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Reconstructed map of the Salmas Plain, Kohneh Shahr and Dilman before the 1930 earthquake
Click the map to open the full-size image

This is a modern reconstruction intended to illustrate the spatial relationships between the settlements. It is not a copy of a single historical map, but a synthesis and cross-checking of cartographic and historical sources.

Maps and Cartographic Sources Used for the Reconstruction

  1. J. S. Tchalenko & M. Berberian, ‘The Salmas (Iran) Earthquake of May 6th, 1930’ (1974) - particularly Figures 2 and 3, which map the Salmas Plain in detail, including Dilman, Kohneh Shahr, Khosrowa, Haftavan, Payajuk, Zaviehjuk and many other settlements, roads, waterways and zones of destruction.
  2. DİLMAN - historical topographic map dated 1930, scale 1:200,000, Harita Umum Müdürlüğü; digital collection of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM).
  3. Samvel Karapetian, History of Armenia: Salmast, Vol. 2 (Yerevan, 2019) - historical and cartographic material on Salmast, including an early twentieth-century manuscript map of the region.
  4. Country of the Nestorians and Regions Adjacent - folding map accompanying Thomas Laurie, Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians (Boston, 1853).
  5. Sidney E. Morse, Country of the Nestorians (1848), The Cerographic Missionary Atlas, scale 1:2,100,000; David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.
  6. British War Office, Tabríz Sheet, Carte internationale du monde au 1,000,000 E (1931), scale 1:1,000,000 - a map produced immediately after the 1930 earthquake.