Giza, Egypt
(Félix Bonfils / Library of Congress)
Tourism to Egypt, and specifically to Cairo and the pyramids, had become a robust and thriving business by the late nineteenth century. The Levant, and Egypt in particular, allowed American and European visitors to experience a sense of the exotic while remaining within the known environment of the Mediterranean.
In 1869, Thomas Cook announced a tour of the Nile, and by the middle of the following decade, the company ran a timetabled steamboat facility for passengers on the river.
A key souvenir regularly obtained was a photograph of oneself and one’s party being assisted to climb the Great Pyramid, such as this one. Almost always, the picture was taken at the North East corner, which came to be known as ‘Tourist’s Corner’.
What Bonfils’ photograph doesn’t show is that it was likely to have been taken at the very base of the pyramid. Tourists posed with local guides as though being helped to ascend the pyramid, without actually having to do so.
‘To ascend the Great Pyramid a payment of three shillings from each tourist has to be made to the Sheikh of the Pyramids, and in addition to this a further fee must be paid for the assistance of some strong muscular Arabs. The usual plan is to have an Arab on each side; if the exigencies of the case require, an extra Arab or two pull in front and push behind. Some travellers make a point of getting up without aid, but the consequent exhaustion is scarcely worth the glory of having accomplished the task.’
Cook’s Tourists’Handbook for Egypt, the Nile, and the Desert, 1876
