Under the sponsorship of the French government and having been instructed in photography by Le Gray, Maxime Du Camp traveled to Egypt and the Near East in the company of Gustave Flaubert during 1849-51, producing paper negatives which are among the earliest photographic views of the region. In 1852, a selection of these images were published as "Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie" by Gide and Baudry, from which this print is Plate 19.
