Accession Number

2012.007.002.060

Description

Black and white photograph of a rocky valley known as 'The Valley of the Kings'. A silhouetted man in robes stands in the foreground.

Narrative

This is a view looking roughly north. On the left of this image are the tombs of Ramesses V/VI, Tutankhamun, Merneptah, and Ramesses II. The man pictured and the photographer are standing on a rocky outcrop and the crowd of people to the right are entering the tombs of Rameses I and Sety I.
 
The Valley of the Kings lies on the west bank of the Nile, across from the city of Luxor. It is a burial-place for many ancient Egyptian rulers and remains a popular tourist destination. The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922 by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon led to a surge in tourism and popular interest in Egyptology, and was known as Tutmania. People were fascinated with the warnings that pharoahs' tombs were cursed, due in part to Carnarvon's death soon after the discovery. It may have been this fascination that inspired Elinor Dunsmuir's ballet, The Sphinx, which was first performed in Monte Carlo in 1927. In The Sphinx, a young boy is transfixed by a vision of a beautiful woman who emerges from a cave in a sand hill near the Sphinx. She curses him and places a dagger in his hands, which he then uses to mortally stab himself as she recedes back into the cave.

Of note is that Viscount Allenby served as British High Commissioner in Egypt from 1919 until 1925. In February of 1926, he visited Victoria, B.C. and dined at Hatley Park with his wife Mabel. 

History of Use

This photograph was taken in about 1925 and later placed in an album created by the James and Laura Dunsmuir family at Hatley Park. 

Some of the images of Hatley Park in the album show minimal landscaping, suggesting those photos date from when the house was newly completed, around 1910. At least one of the album's photographs was used as a post card and a postmark on the back shows a date of 1929, giving an approximate date range for the photographs in the album.

Sometime after Laura Miller Dunsmuir's death in 1937, the album became the property of Dola Frances Dunsmuir (also known as Mrs. Dola Cavendish) and was kept at her house Dolaura in Colwood, B.C. After her death, the album was owned by her sister Kathleen's daughter, Judith Humphreys (also known as Mrs. Judith Joy). Her daughter donated the album to Craigdarroch Castle in 2012.

Date

circa 1925

Dimensions

6.8 x 11 cm

Support

Paper, Photographic paper

Country of Origin

Egypt