One of three photographs taken by Maxime Du Camp in December 1849 with a claim to being the first photograph of the Great Sphinx ever taken. On seeing the Great Sphinx for the first time Du Camp is reported to have said "I cannot remember ever having been moved so deeply". This photograph was included in a small number of privately printed portfolios one of which is now in the possession of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

You can see the original image on their website at this link.

Another of three photographs taken by Maxime Du Camp with a claim to being the first ever photograph of the Great Sphinx of Giza. Taken in December 1849, it was published in a volume of prints in 1852 entitled "Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie". The Sphinx can be seen in the far right of Du Camps photograph of the Great Pyramid.

You can see the original image in the digital collection of the New York Public Library at this link.

The final of three photographs taken by Maxime Du Camp with a claim to being the first ever photograph of the Great Sphinx of Giza. Taken in December 1849, it was published in a volume of prints in 1852 entitled "Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie" and also in a privately published portfolio now in the collection of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The author Gustave Flaubert, who was with Du Camp in Egypt, said of this photograph "No drawing I have seen conveys a proper idea of it [the Great Sphinx]...the best thing is an excellent photo that Max has taken."

You can see the original image in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art at this link.

This photograph of the Great Sphinx of Giza was taken by Felix Teynard in 1851, just over a year after Maxime Du Camp first photographed the Sphinx. It later appeared in a rare volume of photographs published by Teynard in the latter part of the 1850s called "Égypte et Nubie : sites et monuments les plus intéressants pour l'étude de l'art et de l'histoire."

A copy printed in 1853-54 can be seen online in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York at this link.

An early photograph of the Great Sphinx of Giza taken somewhere between 1853-54 by John Beasley Greene who was a pioneer in archaeological photography. Sadly Greene died a few years later at the age of 24. The full original image can be seen in the digital collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art at this link.

Another photograph by John Beasley Greene of the head of the Great Sphinx of Giza rising in the background as Auguste Mariette and his team carry out excavations of the valley temple of Khafre's pyramid complex in 1853. A flag (a French tri-colour according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art) can be seen protruding from the cavity in the Sphinx's head which was later sealed in the 1930s by Émile Baraize.

You can see the full size original image in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art at this link.

One of my favourite photographs of the Great Sphinx of Giza by Francis Frith and dating to 1857. I was recently surprised to read his opinion of the Great Sphinx: "The profile, as given in any view is truly hideous. I fancy that I have read of its beautiful, calm, majestic features; let my reader look at it and say if he does not agree with me, that it can scarcely have been, even in its palmiest days, otherwise than exceedingly ugly."

You can see the orginal image and read his commentary in "Egypt and Palestine Vol. 1" (1858) at this link.

There are at least four more photographs of the Great Sphinx taken by Frith from this angle. They all have minor variations and can be found spread across the collections of the Getty Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the New York Public Library.

Another photograph of the Great Sphinx of Giza by Francis Frith dating to 1857. On closer examination, it reveals how dramatically gnarled and weathered the back and upper body of the Sphinx was at that time. The image is from a book of photographic prints by Frith called "Photo-Pictures, Selected from The Universal Series" (1865).

You can see a higher resolution copy of the photograph in the digital collection of the Getty Museum at this link.

A photograph of the Great Pyramid by Francis Frith dating to 1857. The head of the Great Sphinx can be seen in the mid right of the image. The image is from a book of photographic prints by Frith called "Cairo, Sinai, Jerusalem, and The Pyramids of Egypt: A Series of Sixty Photographic Views. With Descriptions" (1860-61).

You can see a higher resolution copy of the photograph in the digital collection of the Getty Museum at this link.

A photograph of the Great Sphinx of Giza by Francis Frith again dating to 1857. It shows that there once was a staircase over the causeway of Khafre's pyramid complex that led to a simple viewing platform to the south-east of the Sphinx. The image is from a book of photographic prints by Frith called "Photo-Pictures, Selected from The Universal Series" (1865).

You can see a higher resolution copy of the photograph in the digital collection of the Getty Museum at this link.

In 1843 John H Allan mentioned a rare shower of rain that fell as he visited the Great Sphinx. In his book "A Pictorial Tour in the Mediterranean" he records "We had scarcely time to examine this singular and gigantic monument of antiquity, when a smart shower of rain, the first we had experienced in Egypt, drove us away ; a neighbouring tomb afforded us shelter, which we found had lately been converted by Hill and Co., of Cairo, into a sleeping apartment, furnished with chairs, tables, etc. for the accommodation of those wishing to pass the night at the pyramids."

14 years later Francis Firth photographed rock cut tombs in the north-west corner of the Sphinx enclosure seemingly being used just as Allan had described. You can see the original image in "Egypt and Palestine Vol. 2" (1858) at this link.

A stereoscopic photograph of the partially excavated valley temple of Khafre, the Great Sphinx of Giza and the Great Pyramid by Francis Frith dating to c1859-60.

The image is from a book of photographic prints by Frith called "Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia" (1862).

You can see a higher resolution copy of the photograph in the digital collection of the Getty Museum at this link.

About 1870, roughly 10 years after Francis Frith's visits to Egypt, a French contemporary of his, Adolphe Braun, took a photograph of the Great Sphinx of Giza from the southeast. The image illustrates that the lower parts of the Sphinx and most of the Giza plateau remained under sand at that time. The picture is now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. A digitised copy of the image can be seen on the Google Arts & Culture website at this link.

Almost two decades after his partial re-excavation of the Great Sphinx of Giza, Auguste Mariette was photographed at the Sphinx in 1871 with Pedro II, the emperor of Brazil. In this picture, Mariette is the gentleman seated on the far left.

The image was originally published in a collection of photographs by Hippolyte Délié & Emile Béchard and was recently included in an online exhibition by the Biblioteca Nacional Digital do Brasil. The exhibition of images of Egypt and Pompeii can be seen at this link.

Another contemporary of Francis Frith and Adolphe Braun, was the French photographer Felix Bonfils. Bonfils took this particularly impressive picture of the Great Sphinx of Giza in 1872. The image is now in the collection of the J.Paul Getty Museum. A higher resolution copy of the image can be seen on their website at this link.

A photograph of the Great Sphinx of Giza from the northeast by Felix Bonfils dating to the 1870s - probably 1872 if the gentleman perched on the Sphinx's right shoulder is the same as in the image above taken by Bonfils from the southeast. The image is now in the collection of the J.Paul Getty Museum. A higher resolution copy of the image can be seen on their website at this link.