1781.b.39, 11(32)

Inscription: Inscribed in the negative, 'Frith 181.'

Genre: Architectural Photography

General view from the hillside looking down onto St Catherine's Monastery at Wadi Ed Deir: 'This is an extremely picturesque view of the Convent of Sinai, taken from a position very near it, on the slope of the mountain to the west. Looking down upon it we see within the fort-like walls the various buildings of the great monastery. An appearance of decay and neglect first strikes us, which is by no means common in conventual buildings. It is interesting to mark, in the different character of the masonry, excellently given in the photograph, the indications of the decline of the place. The old work is regular, and of large stones; the repairs near the summit of the wall, and the buttresses and and sloping constructions built against it for its support, are of irregular masonry, and generally of very small stones. The buildings within resemble a village, for they have no orderly arrangement. The most striking object is the little mosque, that remarkable concession to the Arabs of the desert. Beyond is seen the convent garden, welcome with its verdure, fruit-trees, and shade, in the desolate wilderness. Beyond rises the eastern side of lofty Horeb, covered, for a long distance above its base, with fragments, some of large size, washed down in the storms.'