2/15th battalion - Sounds like wish

17 August, 20138 December, 2019

Ailsa’s travel photo challenge: Big

Think ‘big’. Now think ‘Egypt’. Perhaps you’re having visions of big protests in the streets, and as I’ve just heard five minutes ago on the evening news: ‘Another day of rage and bloodshed’.

Perhaps you’re thinking of other big Egyptian things: pyramids, massive pharaonic statues, or the sphinx. But here’s something else that’s big in Egypt: the citadel in Cairo, a 12th-century fortification against the Crusaders, and the mosque on its summit built centuries later by Muhammad Ali between 1824 and 1848.

In 1801, Muhammad Ali was appointed by the Ottoman Sultan in Constantinople to be governor in Egypt. But he had bigger plans.

In 1805 he began eliminating the Mamluks, his main competition, a warrior group who for centuries had worked for the Ottoman Empire and the Sultan. In 1811, Muhammad Ali invited the Mamluk leaders to a ceremony in his palace in the citadel, and as they were leaving he had them massacred. In the following days large numbers of Mamluks were killed in the city. Years later, in 1824, he razed the Mamluk buildings in the citadel and in 1830 began building his mosque in the style of the Ottomans in Turkey. The building, with its one main cupola, four smaller and four half-cupolas, resembles the Turkish Blue Mosque. On his death in 1849 Muhammad Ali was buried under it.

Next to it in this photo is one of the Mamluk mosques that remained in the citadel, the Mosque of Mahmud Pasha built in 1567 in the Mamluk architectural tradition, with a pencil-shaped minaret characteristic of Ottoman mosques.

Muhammad Ali Mosque and Mosque of Mahmud Pasha on the Citadel, Cairo

The painting below by David Roberts in 1839 shows the citadel before Muhammad Ali’s mosque was built; it looks quite different from the photo, but the title on the painting tells us it’s the same place:

Even the painting evokes something big! We can see the grandeur of the citadel viewed from above a parapet and also a sense of the size of the structures when compared with the Arab groups dotted in the foreground.

But return to the photo and take a moment to look at the street scene. Peace. It will come again.

Please have a look at Ailsa’s blog post because it was her BIG idea!

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10 August, 2013

Ailsa's travel photo challenge: Architecture

My father was born 93 years ago today, so I knew I had to post some photos from his album. I found these two in his collection of images from Heliopolis, Cairo in 1941/42. They show the racecourse built as part of the plan for the model suburb of Heliopolis, designed by the Belgian industrialist, Baron Empain. The baron had the idea of raising a garden city in the desert, to be a place of luxury and leisure for mostly European visitors and residents. Heliopolis is now a part of greater Cairo. Empain began his development of Heliopolis in 1905 and continued to build it over the next couple of decades. The racecourse was built in 1910.

A colour image of the building shows its deteriorated state in 2011, though it has since become Merryland, an area of shops, cafés and gardens. However, the colour photo also shows how beautiful the detail of the architecture was.

Racecourse, Heliopolis, Cairo, c1941 — Racecourse, track side, Heliopolis, Cairo, c1941

Racecourse, street side, Heliopolis, Cairo, c1941 — Services Club, formally the Royal Pavilion at the Racecourse, Heliopolis, Cairo, c1941

Check out the beautiful photos of architecture on Ailsa’s blog pages.

4 August, 2013

Weekly photo challenge: Foreshadow

I almost posted a photo of a big player on the German side of WWII as a response to the prompt ‘foreshadow’. But I’ve decided not to give him space.

I found the picture amongst my father’s photos, but there were others which, for the opponents of this grim man, undoutedly foreshadowed possible defeat. These two bombers would have had me worried if I were on the losing side (or possibly even if I were on the winning side and standing in the wrong place).

Under this one, the caption reads ‘Flying Fortress’, an American bomber.

The second is captioned simply ‘Bomber’. I assume it’s British, judging by the insignia on the wings and fuselage. Without knowing what the colours of the insignia are, I can take a guess that they are, from the centre out, red, white and blue, British colours:

19 July, 201327 August, 2018

Ailsa’s travel photo challenge: Tilted

Feluccas are traditional motorless boats that have been used for transport on the Nile River since biblical times. From the photo below you’d have to agree that they are graceful whether their masts are tilted into the wind or tilted at rest on the beach. The design is simple, a small wooden boat with a few cushioned seats around the sides, a table in the middle, and sails made from cotton or other natural fibres.

Today feluccas carry tourists and locals on peaceful pleasure boat trips along the Nile. This photo is from my father’s World War two album and was taken in 1941 or 1942. Aren’t the large creamy triangular sails ideal in black and white photography!

Ailsa came up with this theme for a photo challenge. Check out an amazing tilted tree and other photos here.

6 July, 2013

Weekly Photo Challenge: Nostalgic

If you’re living in Cairo at present, you’re probably feeling nostalgic for a quieter city with fewer people in the streets. Here’s a photo to prove that your city was once more peaceful, well, at least outside this hospital. And there was a world war going on!

With a theme like ‘Nostalgic’ I just had to return to my father’s war album. I often think I’ve blogged about his best photos, but when I dig around it long enough I can still find a photo to match a challenge, especially this week when Cairo is undergoing yet more trouble and millions of people are in the streets. It’s the ideal time to post a photo taken in Cairo in about 1941. My father wrote “9th BGH Heliopolis” under it, that is, the 9th British General Hospital in the suburb of Heliopolis, Cairo.

Postscript: Thanks to Ahmad Omar (see his comment below) I now know that this was originally the Heliopolis Palace Hotel, opened in 1910, which became a hospital in both WWI and WWII and since the 1980s has been one of the Presidential Palaces where presidential offices are located.

9th British General Hospital, Heliopolis, Cairo, c1941 (formerly Heliopolis Palace Hotel)

17 June, 2013

Ailsa's travel photo challenge: Flow

I have this photo which is entirely suitable for Ailsa’s challenge this week. She asks us to open the floodgates and let the creativity flow. Well, this photo is not a product of my creativity but of my treasure-hunting. I found it in my father’s WWII album, where it’s entitled ‘Weir in Nile’. The water is certainly flowing!

Often when I want to identify a location in one of these old photos, I can search the web for similar photos, which usually is a sure way of finding details about my image. This time, however, I’ve been unsuccessful. I’ve researched the dams,weirs and barrages on the Nile River in Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia and not found any image that resembles mine. It’s possible that this dam has been rebuilt since the 1940s and now looks completely different. Click twice to enlarge the image.

If anyone out there is an expert on old Nile dams, and if you know what this one was called, please tell me. I’ll be very grateful!

24 April, 201327 August, 2018

54 great opening lines: 43

Henry Holden decided to get an Italian prisoner-of-war after he had seen several at work on Esmond’s farm.

The Enthusiastic Prisoner, E. O. Schlunke

*****

Another short story by Schlunke, the author of The Irling which I wrote about a couple of days ago. This line, beginning with a very Australian name, Henry Holden, caught my attention particularly when I saw it was about an Italian P.O.W. It triggered thoughts of some photos from my father’s war album of Italians taken prisoner by Australian soldiers. Many of the P.O.W.s were shipped to Australia and placed in camps, and their services were offered to local farmers who greatly benefited from the Italians’ excellent knowledge of food production. There is a photo (above) of a stream of Italians heading towards their captor’s camp. There’s also this image of a suave bunch posing for the camera:

19 April, 2013

Ailsa's travel photo challenge: Contrast

This week Ailsa showed us some unicolour tulip crowds where an individual stands out yet stands proud of ending up in the wrong garden. The photos reminded me of these two from my father’s war album. He wrote below the first photo ‘Visit to Cairo zoo’; it’s nicely arranged with each of the Australian soldiers positioned in the shot between pairs of Egyptian police. A real contrast.

Australian soldiers visiting Cairo zoo, 1941

Below the second photo where a salesman seems to be working the tables, he wrote ‘Outside café Heliopolis’. ‘Outside’ is an interesting adjective for that period when cafés in Brisbane, Australia, where my father lived (when not away at war), did not spread outside to the footpath in continental fashion as they do now. Even when I was a child, there was no such thing. The French had influenced Egyptian culture during their time as colonisers, but it took many more decades for the idea to catch on in Australia. Even if the soldiers returned with ideas and encouraged café owners to adopt this dining practice to which our country is so climatically suited, they were slow to try it out. These days, it’s a rare café that doesn’t have tables outside!

Australian soldiers at a café, Heliopolis, Cairo, 1941

9 March, 2013

Ailsa's travel photo challenge: International Women's Day

Women, East Africa, 1941.

Some looked away from the camera, like the Sudanese women in the header photo. (They’re bare-breasted; to be family-friendly I give you only their heads.)

Some happily faced it.

Bint (Arabic for daughter or girl), 1941

Others hid and peaked from behind a door curtain.

The photos are from my father’s album, brought back after serving in the Middle East in 1941/42.

It was Ailsa’s idea to find photos reflecting women’s interests for International Women’s Day. Please look at her post, too.

23 February, 201327 August, 2018

Ailsa’s travel photo challenge: Bridges

Bridge photos, I’ve posted a few. But here’s one you haven’t seen:

Imbaba opening bridge, Nile River, Egypt, c1941 — Imbaba opening bridge, Nile River, Cairo, c1941

The Imbaba Bridge is a swing bridge in Egypt. A photo of the swing section can be found here.

You might also be interested in this post of mine from July about another opening bridge on the Nile, the El Gala’a Bridge, or, as it was known in 1941, the English Bridge.

And below, from a post in December, this excellent bridge perspective. Thanks to Ahmad Omar (see his comment below) I’ve discovered the name of this bridge: Aboul Ela Bridge, also known as the Abou el Ela, Abou al-Ela, and the Boulak Bridge. It was constructed between 1908 and 1912 and dismantled in 1998.

March - THROUGH. Nile Bridge, Cairo, c1941 — Abou el Ela Bridge, Cairo, c1941

And you should look at the Beckett Bridge in Dublin by night, on Ailsa’s blog.