Wf1/4624(14)

Inscription: Signed 'Frith 156' in the negative.

Genre: Archaeological Photography

View looking towards the Pyramid of Amenemhat III (in ruinous condition), with the south (bent) pyramid of Sneferu, in the distance beyond: 'In this view the principal object is the Southern Brick Pyramid of Dahshoor. It is a picturesque mass, of very irregular form, rising out of a mound made by its own ruins. The peasants have quarried it for building materials, and given it the rugged shape it now wears. We can scarcely regret their barbarism, which has varied the aspect of what must have long been a mere rounded Pyramid, and produced these admirable contrasts of light and shade, and of rough and smooth surface ... To the right is seen the huge form of the Southern Stone Pyramid, clear and sharp in outline, and on this side but little ruined. Between the two chief objects the upper part of the Northern Brick Pyramid rises over the undulating plain of sand. In the earliest times, when the Pyramids were perfect, their appearance must have been far less picturesque, from the want of variety in their form and colour. Yet we cannot view them without an earnest wish to know how this vast Necropolis looked when every Pyramid was perfect, and stood in the midst of its group of tombs, the whole forming a memorial, complete in its way, of the reign of a Pharoah ...' This print shows a double image, the result apparently of movement during printing.