DATA RE ABU SIMBEL IN EGYPT - PAGE 4

Other pages on this general subject are here: Pages 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6. But a reminder as always. This page & the pages to which the above links take you, are designed for a 1024 x 768 screen setting. I am always looking for quality data to add to these pages, for my own interest & I hope for your pleasure also. And on occasion e-Bay can be a simply amazing source. Such it has been re the following image. I am often astonished at the poor quality of the images that are posted on e-Bay. Yes, I know it takes time to provide a quality image, but I am quite sure that a good image may sell an item when a poor image will not encourage potential buyers to linger. Or to bid. Anyway, the following magnificent image was found on e-Bay. I trust I may be forgiven for using it in this way. Of the facade of the main temple at Abu Simbel. An albumen photograph taken by A. Beato. Now Antonio Beato is a noted photographer of subjects Egyptian but this image is superior in image quality & drama to any image of his I had seen before (there is quite a quantity of his work available through the WWW). Without more ado, here then is the Beato albumen image of the facade of the main temple at Abu Simbel. Signed in the negative at bottom left. The image size is 9 x 11 inches on a 11 x 14 inch album page. I slightly reduced it in size to fit this page width & very slightly sharpened it also. I cannot tell you in which exact year it was taken, alas, but the vendor states that it dates to the 1870s or early 1880s. Its value? All I can tell you is that it sold on Dec. 30, 2002 for U.S. $150.00 with a single bid. David Roberts, R.A., (1796-1864), painted Abu Simbel, or as it was then termed "Aboo-Simbel", a number of times. Here is one of those paintings, scanned I believe from of a print published in 1856, one of the plates (#169) from Roberts's "Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, & Nubia", published by Day & Son of London. You can find this image on the WWW in a number of places, & each of the available images looks quite different in the depth of its colouration. I am not sure what an original of such a print would look like, colour-wise. And perhaps that would vary also, depending upon how it was stored in the last 150 or so years & how it was scanned. And below that image is most of an image of another David Roberts work - his view of the temples from the river Nile i.e. the image that was featured on the bottom of Page 1. Also published as above, (#203). Together with the descriptive text as it was published in 1856. back to Mt. Rushmore Lake Applet Page. ~ Abu Simbel Data Pages 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 & Special Pages Index.