In the early 2000s, I was lucky enough to be enlisted in helping with the restoration of the Bagh e Babur in Kabul, Afghanistan. In the 16th century, the Mughal king Babur had these glorious pleasure gardens constructed. And at the end of his life, it was here, amidst the orchards, plane trees and gurgling water courses he had created that he was laid to rest in a splendid marble tomb.
The Bagh e Babur
Sadly, during the Afghan Civil War of the 1990s, the great garden was wrecked. Its 27 acres were all but razed, leaving behind a wasteland of rubble and dust. A considerable restoration project had to be launched. This began in 2002 under the auspices of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
My part in this project – a very small part – involved drawing up schematics for one of the proposed regeneration plans. With pens and paints, I mapped the gardens’ terrain and its terraces, demarcated its mighty walls, charted its proposed waterways, drafted its planting schedules and plotted out aerial diagrams of recommended tree coverage.
This one-off experience as a map-maker had an effect on me. There was a romance to it. I felt I was mapping a legacy as much as a landscape, and I wanted to do more of it. I’m very pleased to have the opportunity now to return to this ancient craft.
My maps are hand-drawn and bespoke. I bring to them an artist’s sensibility as much as a surveyor’s. They’re accurate and detailed, but they’re also littered with drawings which illuminate the events and moments which helped shape the terrain’s story. To manage this properly, before I begin drawing, I carry out extensive historical research. Then, I check-in to see which elements of that research the client wants included in the final image.
If you have a landscape you love, and you’d like to see it drafted, illustrated and hanging on your wall, get in touch on my ‘Contact’ page and explore the options with me. There’s no obligation. And you’ll be surprised at how smoothly it can happen.
“After careful consideration we selected Aengus Dewar to take on the task of a complicated map incorporating information from various sources including ultra sound plans of archaeological sites, Georgian estate maps, Victorian maps and modern data in various forms. We chose Aengus as he was both an exceptional draughtsman and, unusually, an extraordinary historian able to bring a level of detail and accuracy that others couldn’t approach. Aengus quickly understood our requirements and subsequently undertook research that went far beyond what we were expecting. The resulting map is, I think it is fair to say, a masterpiece and a source of continual pleasure; beyond this, unexpectedly, we were fascinated by his research, the Roman element of which has now been passed onto to a local museum. In conclusion Aengus entirely exceeded our expectations on every area and I would be delighted to show the map and his research to anyone wise enough to consider him for a similar project. I suspect his ability in this area is unrivalled.”