Pyramid of Khafre, Giza

Date1890s

MediumSilver bromide print from collodion negative

Credit LineGift of Margaret A. Carver in memory of Charles H. Carver, Emory '39

Dimensions8 3/16 x 10 9/16 in. (20.8 x 26.8 cm)

Object number1984.011.009

Label Text"I confess, for my part, that the Pyramids are very big."
William Makepeace Thackery, Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo, 1846

This pyramid still retains some of its limestone casing at the top. The rest was stripped in medieval times to build the mosques and palaces of Cairo. The rough aspect of the inner masonry prompted Mark Twain to describe the ancient monument as "a corrugated, unsightly mountain of stone." While most tourists found the pyramids, aside from their sheer immensity, unimpressive, others described them more romantically as "piles of massy gold."
Exhibition HistoryThe Fascination With The East: Early Photographs of Egypt (travelling show), Emory University Museum of Art and Archaeology, November 18, 1986 - February 28, 1987; Louisiana Arts and Sciences Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, September 19 - December 31, 1987; Red Mountain Museum, Birmingham, Alabama, April 10 - May 8, 1988
Along the Nile, Michael C. Carlos Museum, May - September 1993; June - September 1994
Souvenirs of the Nile: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Egypt, Michael C. Carlos Museum, July 1 - September 24, 2000
Published ReferencesMonique Seefried and Mary Cozine Woodward, The Fascination with the East: Early Photographs of Egypt (Atlanta: Emory University Museum of Art and Archaeology, 1987), front cover, 7.

ProvenanceEx coll. Maria Hersey (1843-1927), Portland, Maine. Thence by descent.

Status

Not on view

Collections