Assouan (Syène), Carrières de Granit - Ancien Système d'Extraction

Félix Teynard|Imprimerie Photographique de H. de Fonteny et Cie

1851–52, printed 1853–54 · Salted paper print from paper negative · Photographs

Most of the colossi and obelisks of ancient Egypt were cut from this granite quarry in Nubia. The clean diagonal mass in the center is an unfinished obelisk, evidently abandoned when a crack traveled down its 100-foot length. For Teynard, a civil engineer intent on describing the sites and monuments along the Nile, it served as a pointer sighting a distant temple just visible on the horizon.

Artist

Félix Teynard|Imprimerie Photographique de H. de Fonteny et Cie

Date

1851–52, printed 1853–54

Medium

Salted paper print from paper negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1976