Palestine Exploration Fund

The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society based in London. It was founded in 1865, shortly after the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem, and is the oldest known organization in the world created specifically for the study of the Levant region, also known as Palestine. Often simply known as the PEF, its initial object was to carry out surveys of the topography and ethnography of Ottoman Palestine – producing the PEF Survey of Palestine – with a remit that fell somewhere between an expeditionary survey and military intelligence gathering. It had a complex relationship with Corps of Royal Engineers, and its members sent back reports on the need to salvage and modernise the region.