Photography Department Purchase Fund, 1959.608/106
DuCamp, a writer, painter, and photographer, spent almost two years in Egypt with his friend, the novelist Gustave Flaubert. DuCamp’s photos are the first ever taken of the temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, near the headwaters of the Nile River. The huge statues of the temple were 65 feet high, and were buried in desert sand which had to be dug away so DuCamp could photograph them. The pharaoh Ramses II ruled Egypt around 1250 B.C. He is shown as the god Osiris; the snake, a cobra springing from his forehead, is a sign of the ruler’s power.