[Mecca]

Mid-16th century view of Mecca.

This relatively generic European city view is intended to depict Mecca! Though a number of minarets indicate a likely Muslim population, there is little actual relation between the image and the contemporary layout of the holy city around the time of publication.

For example, while Medina was fortified was walls (one of the only cities in the Hejaz), Mecca was not. Furthermore, while the Ottomans were relatively tolerant of other religious practices, it was unlikely that a church spire would have pierced the skyline!

The hand-colored woodcut was originally published in a French edition of Sebastian Munster’s Geographia in Basel around 1550.