Object Details
- Local Numbers
- Negative number 1959 C-6, 16.
- General
- Title source: Index card based on photographer's notes.
- Local Note
- Typed index card reads, "T 6 Egy. Egypt. Old Cairo. Interior of Ben Ezra Synagogue, built 900 years ago. 1959. EE. neg.no. 1959 C-6, 16." The card was written in 1977-79 by Archives staff using source provided by photographer.
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Collection Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Place
- Africa
- Egypt
- Topic
- Cultural landscapes
- Religious buildings
- Architecture -- Egypt
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- See more items in
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection / Egypt
- Extent
- 1 Negatives (photographic) (b&w, 35mm.)
- Date
- 1959
- Archival Repository
- Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
- Identifier
- EEPA.1973-001, Item EEPA EENG 06384
- Type
- Archival materials
- Negatives (photographic)
- Black-and-white negatives
- Negatives
- Collection Citation
- Eliot Elisofon Field Collection, EEPA 1973-001, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution
- Collection Rights
- Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
- Genre/Form
- Black-and-white negatives
- Negatives
- Scope and Contents
- "Built in 1892 on the foundations of a collapsed eleventh-century predecessor, the Ben Ezra Synagogue is the source of one of the greatest manuscript finds in modern history, some 140,000 pages of medieval texts retrieved in 1896 from the synagogue's geniza. In the early 1980s the relatively modest two-story structure, bordered on the east by a Roman fortification wall and hemmed in by the sixth-century Church of St. Barbara and a Greek Catholic cemetery, was no longer a functioning place of worship. Most of Cairo's Jewish community either emigrated to Israel or moved north to the city's more central districts decades ago. By 1968, the structure was closed to the public." [silberman N., October 1995: Cultural Taxidermy. Archeology, september-October 1995]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for Life magazine and traveled to Africa from August 18, 1959 to December 20, 1959.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
- Record ID
- ebl-1536870822481-1536871013636-1
