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Sinai, Jebel Mousa, Israel, Matson photograph collection
Summary
Title from negative sleeve.
Photograph taken from the summit of Mount Sinai (Biblical Sinai or Gebel Musa), looking northwest and showing the plateau in the foreground between the round-shape summit of Biblical Mount Horeb (Ras Sefsafa or Gebel Monacha) and Mount Sinai from right to the centre, Wadi Sharig with its visible path in centre-right and Gebel Abu Mahrur to the right in the foreground, the western slopes of Gebel San'a, the vicinity of El Raha Plain and the pointed summits of Gebel Zebb Rubi' in the far horizon in centre-right, the twin summits of Gebel Hagig from a 11.5km distance behind Mount Horeb, the vicinities of Naqb El Hawa to its right and Wadis Ginab, Tilah & Madman to its left in the centre, the tooth-shape summits of Gebel Na'aga in the far horizon in centre-left, and the low-elevated summit of Ras El Tal'aa between the mountains to the left. (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
Byzantine monastic structures are scattered across the plateau of Biblical Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai, including ruined buildings (dwellings), hermit cells, prayer niches, rock-paved paths, rock inscriptions and agricultural plots (water dams, reservoirs & cisterns, conduits and retaining walls) (4th-7th centuries CE). Medieval mountain chapels were built on the plateau between 9th and 10th centuries CE, including the chapels of Our Lady of the Storehouse (The Virgin Mary, Oikonimissa or Bursar), prophet Elijah (Grotto of Elias), St. Panteleimon, St. Anne (Banaya or El Madsusa) and St. John, while the chapels of St. Stephen, St. Marina the Virgin, St. Gregory and The Holy Girdle of Virgin Mary (El Sefsafa) were re/built in 18th-19th centuries CE, other than the ruined Byzantine chapels. An estimated population of 100 to 150 Nubian Ibexes dwelled in the High Mountains of Sinai Peninsula in 1970s CE and still frequently observed on the plateau in late 20th-early 21st centuries CE (wild animals in the vicinity: hyena 'uplands', wolf, fox, leopard 'extirpated', cat fleas, hyrax, hare, hedgehog, Egyptian spiny mouse, bat and feral donkeys). (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
Taken either by the American Colony Photo Department or its successor, the Matson Photo Service.
On negative sleeve: See 1686, p. 457.
Caption on negative: Southern precipice of Jebel Mousa [i.e., Musa].
Guide card: Sinai.
Gift; Episcopal Home; 1978.
The G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection is a source of historical images of the Middle East. The majority of the images depict Palestine (present-day Israel and the West Bank) from 1898 to 1946. Most of the Library of Congress collection consists of over 23,000 glass and film photographic negatives and transparencies created by the American Colony Photo Department and its successor firm, the Matson Photo Service. The American Colony Photo Department in Jerusalem was one of several photo services operating in the Middle East before 1900. Catering primarily to the tourist trade, the American Colony and its competitors photographed holy sites, often including costumed actors recreating Biblical scenes. The firm’s photographers were residents of Palestine with knowledge of the land and people that gave them an advantage and made their coverage intimate and comprehensive. They documented Middle East culture, history, and political events from before World War I through the collapse of Ottoman rule, the British Mandate period, World War II, and the emergence of the State of Israel. The Matson Collection also includes images of people and locations in present-day Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Turkey. Additionally, the firm produced photographs from an East African trip. The collection came to the Library of Congress between 1966 and 1981, through a series of gifts made by Eric Matson and his beneficiary, the Home for the Aged of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Los Angeles (now called the Kensington Episcopal Home).
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