The story
In the album “Pictures from Makkah”, published in 1889, the city was photographed as a panorama spread over four consecutive plates. According to the Library of Congress record, this photograph is its right-hand section.
Its title in the album is “Fourth view of the city of Makkah”, and it is plate five.
Look again: Follow the line of houses and streets in the photograph, and remember that it is one quarter of a wider scene.
What do we know? What don’t we know?
What we know:
- It is the right-hand section of a four-plate panorama (II–V) in the album Bilder aus Mekka, 1889.
What we do not know, or cannot be sure of:
- The spot from which it was taken, and the names of the neighbourhoods it shows.
- The exact year it was taken, and the photographer with certainty: the attribution comes from a researcher’s study.
A replacement for item 04 in the report: the Qatar Digital Library record could not be reached, so we chose a view of the city from the same album at the Library of Congress.