Hundreds of thousands of aerial photographs of Middle Eastern countries have been taken since the beginning of the First World War. The majority has been destroyed, but tens of thousands survive in archives in several countries. Identification of and research on these collections has grown rapidly in recent years. Although the potential value of these ’historical’ photographs has long been known, the rapid and dramatic development in Middle Eastern countries, affecting archaeological sites and landscapes, has accelerated the need for such records. This chapter surveys the present state of our knowledge of historical archive aerial photography, illustrates its use through specific examples and sets out a programme for increasing access to the ’archive’ and opening it up to researchers through a web-based collection. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. All rights are reserved.
