#PF80
Ca. 1890s
Twenty-two loose original gelatin silver photos, from ca. 18x23 cm (7x9 in) to ca. 14x19,5 cm (5 ½ x 7 ¾ in). At least sixteen photos with period pencil numbers on verso; eighteen with pencil captions on verso. One photo is attached to a period album leaf. All but one photo with remnants of an old mount on verso, several with minor creases on corners, one photo with a loss of one corner, a few photos mildly faded, but overall a very good collection of interesting photos.
Interesting collection of original gelatin silver amateur photos of Egypt, taken by European travellers (likely, French) in the late 19th century. The collection includes a series of views of the Philae Temple and its environs, dating to before the island of Philae was flooded by the construction of the Aswan Low Dam in 1902. The photos show the island and the temple from the distance across the Nile River, as well as closer views of the Trajan’s Kiosk, the Second Pylon, the Mammisi building and the colonnade; two excellent photos of the Nile’s First Cataract (submerged after the construction of the Aswan Low Dam), and three views of the “Chellal” (Shellal) village south of Philae Island, where the trips to the temple departed from (tourist boats docked at the Nile bank, travellers on donkeys in the village). Other images show the Karnak Temple (Great Hypostyle Hall, Egyptian guides posing next to the partly-excavated ram sculptures of the Ram’s Road, interior of the Third or Fourth Pylon), statue of Ramses II in the partly-excavated courtyard of the Luxor Temple, the entrances to the tombs of the Theban Necropolis, flooded “Colosses de Memnon pendant l’inondation,” and two ancient Egyptian bas-reliefs: the first from the Ramses III’s mortuary temple in Medinet Habu shows the pharaoh hunting wild bulls, the second depicts a pharaoh bringing sacrifice to god Amun-Ra. There are also portraits of a Bichari boy from Aswan, “Zénobia at sa grand-mére (Thébes)” and two scenes with the travellers posing in an Egyptian garden (possibly, of the “Shepheard’s Hotel” in Cairo). Overall, an interesting collection of early amateur photographs depicting the Philae and other Egyptian temples before the major excavations and relocations that occurred in the 20th century.
