This beautifully illustrated book focuses on the topographical photography of Batavia in the late 19th century. Containing more than 150 old photographs of great historical value, maps and anecdotes about the buildings captured in these images, the book takes us on a nostalgic journey back to the 19th century. The book, the result of eight years of research, shows us glimpses of people, the state of technological development, the thriving economic life, the social setting, and then landscape and aura of the place now known as Jakarta. This book features a great many archival images that have never been published before. The appendices contain articles and illustrations on the photographers of 19th-century Batavia, mainly Woodbury and Page, J. A. Meessen and the Netherlands Topographical Bureau, as well as notes on the text and a bibliography. Large format, richly illustrated in colour.