Mapping Haunted Water Sites in Palestine: In the Footsteps of Tawfiq Canaan

This photo essay discusses what began as a mapping project based upon Tawfiq Canaan's 1920-21 seminal essay "Haunted Springs and Water Demons in Palestine" and includes a series of site drawings and an A4 text installation, as well as other supporting archival material.Using open-source mapping, made available in 2020 through Visualizing Palestine "Open Maps," the work sought to locate the 125 haunted springs, wadis, wells, and cisterns documented by Canaan.The essay illustrates what Canaan foresaw: the disappearance of landscapes due to processes of modernization and colonization, leading to the erosion of folk traditions and the cessation of practices associated with haunted springs.