The region surrounding D21S55 in band 21q22 of human chromosome 21 has been implicated in the etiology of Down syndrome (DS). In this paper, we report the construction of a high resolution map of a 2.5 Mb region around the marker D21S55. Characterization of YAC clones by accurate size determination, end isolation and marker assignment was used to build a refined YAC-based map. The YAC clones were then used to isolate 284 cosmid clones, covering 2.3 Mb, from a chromosome 21-specific cosmid library. The cosmid clones were ordered into overlapping groups and a restriction map of each group was determined. The groups of cosmids were then ordered and oriented with respect to the YAC-based map. This high resolution map provides the framework for further analysis of the region by transcribed sequence mapping and sequence determination.