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Sinai, 16th century Egypt - Public domain image. Dry plate negative.
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Title from negative sleeve.
Photograph taken from Wadi Ghrandal (Biblical Elim) at its outlet into El Hegb Plain at the palm grove and spring area, on Sinai's western coast of the Gulf of Suez to the south of the town of Suez, showing the mainstream of the valley, a way station for pilgrims, travellers, scholars and early tourists. (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
Camels replaced feral donkeys in transportation in 2nd millennium BCE, though domesticated donkeys are still used in the High Mountains of Sinai Peninsula. Wadi Ghrandal and the surrounding palm grove is the traditional location of Biblical Elim, on the Exodus route of the Israelites to the vicinity of Biblical Mount Sinai and Saint Catherine Monastery (also known as Darb El Batraa). The landscape is dotted with a Nabatean settlement (1st century CE), Roman outpost (30 BCE-365 CE), Byzantine monastic settlement and hermit caves (4th century CE), and Islamic pottery shreds (7th century CE and later periods). The palm grove and spring area had functioned as key way station for pilgrims, travellers, scholars and early tourists in Sinai desert for centuries. 'Aliqat (14th century CE) and Tarabien (16th century CE) tribes inhabit the vicinity of Wadi Ghrandal. (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
Taken either by the American Colony Photo Department or its successor, the Matson Photo Service.
Guide card: Sinai.
Gift; Episcopal Home; 1978.
The G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection is a source of historical images of the Middle East. The majority of the images depict Palestine (present-day Israel and the West Bank) from 1898 to 1946. Most of the Library of Congress collection consists of over 23,000 glass and film photographic negatives and transparencies created by the American Colony Photo Department and its successor firm, the Matson Photo Service. The American Colony Photo Department in Jerusalem was one of several photo services operating in the Middle East before 1900. Catering primarily to the tourist trade, the American Colony and its competitors photographed holy sites, often including costumed actors recreating Biblical scenes. The firm’s photographers were residents of Palestine with knowledge of the land and people that gave them an advantage and made their coverage intimate and comprehensive. They documented Middle East culture, history, and political events from before World War I through the collapse of Ottoman rule, the British Mandate period, World War II, and the emergence of the State of Israel. The Matson Collection also includes images of people and locations in present-day Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Turkey. Additionally, the firm produced photographs from an East African trip. The collection came to the Library of Congress between 1966 and 1981, through a series of gifts made by Eric Matson and his beneficiary, the Home for the Aged of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Los Angeles (now called the Kensington Episcopal Home).
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