Francis Bedford
1862, 3 March
View from Mosque of Mehemet Ali, M. of S. Hasan [Mosque of Muhammad Ali and Mosque of Sultan Hassan, Cairo]

Albumen print
24.3 x 29.3 cm (image)
 
The Royal Collection
RCIN 2700862
 
View from rooftop of the Mosque of Mehmet Ali, Cairo, showing colonnade below and tower, left, with Islamic crescent on top. Mosque of Sultan Hassan with minarets and dome, and city beyond. The Prince of Wales climbed to the roof of the mosque in order to obtain a good view of the city and the pyramids beyond (3 March 1862). Bedford's catalogue of the photographic views stated, 'The mosk of Sultan Hassan, the finest in Cairo, was erected at an enormous cost, out of materials brought from the pyramids, AD1356-9, occupying exactly three years in its construction. The interior differs in form from mosks of earlier date, and from the generality of those at Cairo, its plan being a Greek cross. The dome is about 170 feet high, and the loftier of the two minarets about 280 feet.' (Bedford catalogue 1862, p.4). The photograph is signed, captioned and dated in the negative, 'F Bedford Cairo'. The number in the Day & Son series 5.
 
Acquired by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), 1862
 
LL/93364