# Topograhical maps of Turkey

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topograhical-maps-of-turkey/340982>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 21, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topograhical-maps-of-turkey/340982 "2006-01-21T14:34:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topograhical-maps-of-turkey/340982/1 "2006-01-21T14:34:05Z")

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It’s all but impossible to obtain topographical maps better than 1:500,000 for Turkey. I read somewhere it’s an agreement between Turkey and the US.  
Do other countries respect this agreement, and how ? Why couldn’t Russia or Armenia sell Turkish maps ?  
Or are the US the only country to have access to detailed maps of Turkey ?

What is this agreement worth now that we have access to detailed satellite views on NASA’s World Wind or Google Earth ?

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2006, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topograhical-maps-of-turkey/340982/2 "2006-01-21T16:08:26Z")

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I don’t know about any agreement like that. It seems unlikely.

East View Cartography and Omni Resources both sell Soviet topographic maps covering about a third of the country at 1:50,000 scale.

The Earth Sciences & Map Library at UC Berkely claims to have a series of 584 Soviet maps of Turkey at 1:100,000 scale.

The Map Library at Michigan State University claims to have a series of 70 maps of Turkey at 1:200,000 scale. I couldn’t find out who produced the maps.

East View Cartographic sells a series of 66 cartographic maps at 1:250,000 scale that covers most of the country. It lists the producer of the maps as “General Command of Mapping Turkey”.

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**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topograhical-maps-of-turkey/340982/3 "2006-01-22T11:35:45Z")

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> [@bibliophage](#):
>
> I don’t know about any agreement like that. It seems unlikely.
> 
> East View Cartography and Omni Resources both sell Soviet topographic maps covering about a third of the country at 1:50,000 scale.
> 
> The Earth Sciences & Map Library at UC Berkely claims to have a series of 584 Soviet maps of Turkey at 1:100,000 scale.
> 
> The Map Library at Michigan State University claims to have a series of 70 maps of Turkey at 1:200,000 scale. I couldn’t find out who produced the maps.
> 
> East View Cartographic sells a series of 66 cartographic maps at 1:250,000 scale that covers most of the country. It lists the producer of the maps as “General Command of Mapping Turkey”.

Great, Bibliophage. I read about this agreement from the US Geological Survey at the time I was looking for such maps (about 10 years ago). I can’t cite because I got rid of the documents when I had access to Google Earth !  
Many thanks.