An Extraordinary Event, 2018

An Extraordinary Event, 2018

In the spring of 1887, Osman Hamdi Bey took these eight photographs at Boustan al Maghara in Ayyaa’, Saida. The location and most of the people who appeared in the pictures had probably never been photographed prior to this date. What prompted these photographs was the excavation of 19 sarcophagi from the Phoenician period, most of which were displayed temporarily in this garden before they left to Constantinople, where they remain until this day. These 8 photographs represent the only record of these finds prior to their departure.