The fundamental Bases of Good Government
In 1936 the British built a partition barrier along the Jordan valley in Palestine with the intent to stop terrorists entering from Jordan. It was about 90km long running from the Dead Sea to Lake Tiberias in the north. Commissioned by Charles Tegart the fence fitted with gas booby traps was intended to ‘curb the activities of the wily Arab”. They had drawn a line in the sand or imaginary geography between occident and orient.
The national archive at Oxford University holds documents and photographs on the Tegart Barrier and the forts he built along the northern frontier. The map and accompanying letters suggests there was a fence along the Jordan River. After visiting the archive I went to look for this imaginary geography that was created in the final throws of the Britiah Empire.