The Epigraphic Survey of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago produced a series of limited-edition photographs titled Lost Egypt. These exquisite photographic prints recapture images of the Nile Valley at the turn of the twentieth century, revealing glimpses of an Egypt that no longer exists.
The images reproduced in the portfolios are from the Survey’s unique archive of over eight hundred large-format glass plate negatives, which were taken in Egypt between 1880 and 1930 and which provide an extraordinary impression of the land and people of the Nile Valley as they appeared before the onset of the modern era. These views include the ruins of ancient monuments still half-buried beneath the sand, exquisite details of carved and painted temple walls, fleets of feluccas on the river, palm groves reflected in the waters of the inundation, and formal salon poses and ethnographic portraits of Egyptians and Nubians.
The prints in Lost Egypt are of considerable interest as examples of photography produced for early travelers to the Nile Valley, and some bear the signatures of the well-known nineteenth-century photographers Zangaki and A. Beato. The prints resemble in every detail those that were bought as souvenirs by nineteenth-century travelers.