IDNO

P.50980.RDG

Description

Fleet of dhows (traditional Arab sailing vessel with one or more lateen sails) on the Nile. In the distance are the stone walls along the river banks, a stone bridge across the Nile, and a large stone colonial building.

Place

N Africa; Egypt; River Nile; Cairo

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

C. & G. Zangaki Brothers

Collector / Expedition

Ridgeway, William

Date

circa 1880 - 1900

Collection Name

Ridgeway Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

The print was found in an envelope now marked C239/ which was inside the wooden drawer I.

Related Image: Same image held at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, with the following information.
“Voiliers arabes dans le Nil, by Zangaki
Bibliography: ‘Souvenir of Egypt: Monuments, Temples, Mosques, and Scenes from Everyday Life (Cairo, George Ch. Dovas: 1898), plate 44 'Boats on the Nile' (version not signed)

Biographical Information: “With the annual fluctuations in the level of the Nile due to the inundation, the prime sailing time for large vessels was before the construction of the High Dam at Aswan limited to the six months between July and December. For this reason, a year-round use of small boats was often preferred. Even during the reign of Ramesses II, the fleet that carried sandstone blocks from the quarries of Gebel Silsileh (near Kom Ombo) to Thebes for the construction of the Ramesseum, the king's mortuary temple, consisted of small craft, each of which carried only 5 to 7 blocks, about 15 tons. Attested already in antiquity, the triangular lateen sail was to become during Byzantine times and the early Middle Ages the most important sail of the Mediterranean world. The tall, narrow lateen perhaps derived from a braided-up square sail with a slanted yard for sailing close-hauled in a hard wind is well suited to catching the breezes skimming above the Nile between the looming desert escarpments.”
Signed at lower left "Zangaki"; Caption at lower right "Nr. 411 Voiliers arabe [sic.] dans le Nil".
Wet collodion on glass, 23.5 x 29.5 cm”
[Source: http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/DEPT/PUB/CATALOG/LE3.2.html, JD 18/10/2006]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 18/10/2006]