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Unidentified photographer
Tourists climbing the Pyramid of Cheops
n.d.
Albumen print
9.6`Æ x 7.8 in (244 mm x 200 mm)
Paul Frecker
LL/12158
Paul Frecker provides the following comments:
"As a result of the organized tours introduced in the latter half of the nineteenth century, Egypt enjoyed enormously popularity as a holiday destination, and photographers were quick to target this market. This is one of the conventional views of the Great Pyramid that quickly became an established staple of the tourist market. People looking at the photograph could immediately identify the monument solely by its diagonal edge. More importantly, the anecdotal character of the image, which clearly emphasized the local guides and tourists climbing up the pyramid, made it the perfect souvenir. Photographs like this one were not only mementos of the highlights of their Grand Tour, but also proof to their friends and relations of how strenuous and exciting the trip had been.
The other market for such images was the "armchair traveller". Félix Bonfils in the introduction to his 1878 photograph album Egypt and Nubia wrote that "[t[hose who are prevented from travelling to these sites due to illness, lack of funds, or their domestic situations, have the possibility to go at their leisure, at low cost and with little effort, to those countries which many have reached only at the risk of their lives."
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