Vintage Everyday: Cairo

Showing posts with label Cairo. Show all posts

February 17, 2025

26 Stunning Portraits of Egyptian Women From Cairo in Traditional Dress From the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

February 17, 2025 1800s, 1900s, Cairo, Egypt, event & history, fashion & clothing, female, photography, portraits

Egyptian culture has six thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations and for millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and other African countries. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, Christianity and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt’s ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture.

Egyptian women’s traditional dress from the late 19th and early 20th centuries reflected a blend of Ottoman, Mamluk, and local Egyptian influences, with regional and social class variations. Here are some key elements of their attire during this period:

1. The “Melaya Lef”: A large black shawl or wrap worn over clothing, particularly by urban women in Cairo and Alexandria. Often made of silk or cotton, it covered the body modestly and was sometimes paired with a headscarf. Some women added decorative elements like embroidery or beads.

2. The “Tarboush” and Head Coverings: Elite women often wore a tarboush (fez) with a long sheer veil (yaşmak), following Ottoman trends. The mandil (headscarf) was commonly used in rural areas. More conservative women used a “burqu” (face veil) made of fine netting or silk, especially in urban settings.

3. The “Yelek” or “Tob”: A long, loose-fitting dress, often with long sleeves. Made of cotton, linen, or silk, depending on the wearer’s wealth. Embroidered versions were popular among wealthier women.

4. The “Gallabeya”: A simpler, everyday dress, mostly worn by rural and lower-class women. Often brightly colored in contrast to the darker urban styles. Typically paired with a headscarf and simple jewelry.

5. Accessories and Jewelry: Women adorned themselves with silver and gold jewelry, including bracelets, earrings, and necklaces. Kohl was used for eye makeup, and henna for hand and foot decoration. Wealthier women wore fine embroidered shoes, while rural women often went barefoot or wore simple leather sandals.

October 5, 2024

Cairo in the Late 19th Century Through Gabriel Lekegian’s Lens

October 05, 2024 1800s, Cairo, Egypt, life & culture, people, street

Gabriel Lekegian (1853–1920), also known as G. Lékégian, was an Armenian painter and photographer, active in Constantinople and Cairo from the 1880s to the 1920s. Little is known about his life, but he left an important body of work under the name of his studio ‘Photographie Artistique G. Lekegian & Cie’.

With a large number of now historical photographs of Ottoman Egypt, he documented the country at the end of the 19th century. Among other collections, his photographs are held in the New York Public Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

These amazing photos were taken by Gabriel Lekegian that show everyday life in Cairo from the late 19th century.

November 18, 2023

32 Amazing Vintage Photos of Egyptians From the 1870s

November 18, 2023 1800s, Cairo, Egypt, life & culture, people, portraits

These early photographs were taken by Émile Béchard in Cairo, Egypt during the 1870s. Portraits include ‘types’ such as shopkeepers, street merchants and dancers.

Béchard was active in Cairo from 1869 until 1880 where he specialized in photographing Egyptian subjects in an orientalist style. The name H. Bechard appears scratched into the negatives of a number of large format prints produced in Egypt in the 1870s.

Émile Béchard operated a studio during the same period in the Esbekiah Gardens in Cairo along with Hippolyte Delie and who won a gold medal at the International Exhibition of 1878 in Paris. It is believed that Delie was an alternate name used by Emile’s brother Hippolyte.

June 21, 2023

Amazing Vintage Photographs of German Zeppelin Airship Flying Over Giza, Egypt in the 1930s

June 21, 2023 1930s, architecture & construction, aviation, Cairo, Egypt, event & history, traffic & transport

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin was a German-built and operated, passenger-carrying, hydrogen-filled, rigid airship which operated commercially from 1928 to 1937. It was named after Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was a count (Graf) in the German nobility, and christened by his daughter on July 8, 1928.

From 1928 to 1932 the airship was used primarily for experimental and demonstration purposes to prepare the way for regular commercial transatlantic passenger service. The airship made its first long distance journey in 1928 with a crossing of the Atlantic to the United States. Later demonstration flights included its round-the-world tour in 1929, the Europe-Pan American flight in 1930, a polar expedition in 1931, two round trips to the Middle East, and a variety of other flights around Europe.

In 1932 the Graf began providing regularly scheduled passenger, mail, and freight service between Germany and South America (Brazil). The Graf was abruptly withdrawn from active service on the day after the loss of the Hindenburg in May 1937.

During its career the Graf Zeppelin flew more than 1,056,000 miles becoming the first aircraft in history to fly over a million miles, made 590 flights, 144 oceanic crossings (143 across the Atlantic, one across the Pacific), and carried 13,110 passengers without ever injuring a passenger or crewman. The Graf was scrapped in 1940.

The year 1931 falls within the interwar period, a time of global tension and transition between World War I and World War II. It was a period characterized by economic instability, social change, and political uncertainty. The photographs of the Graf Zeppelin floating over the pyramids reflects both technological advancements and the spirit of exploration prevalent during this era.

The Graf Zeppelin’s flight over the Great Pyramids exemplifies the fascination with aviation and exploration during the early 20th century. This era witnessed numerous groundbreaking achievements in aviation, with airships and airplanes capturing the imagination of the public. The ability to witness an airship floating over such a historic and iconic location would have been an awe-inspiring experience for the Egyptian men observing the event.

March 22, 2022

Fascinating Vintage Color Snapshots From a Trip Through Africa in 1970

March 22, 2022 1970s, Africa, Cairo, Cape Town, Egypt, Kenya, life & culture, people, Salisbury, South Africa, Zimbabwe

In 1970, British traveler and photographer Allan Hailstone took a trip from London to Africa that took in six cities and four countries. He traveled to Cape Town and back with stopovers in Cairo, Nairobi, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Salisbury in Rhodesia (now Harare in Zimbabwe).

“My arrival in Cairo was a culture shock, as it would be today, but I had experienced Morocco in 1960 and so I knew to some extent what sort of atmosphere to expect.” He told MailOnline Travel. “Rhodesia was fascinating because the country had declared itself independent of British rule in 1965, and the so-called Smith regime was regarded as illegal by the UK and one was advised not to visit. There were no UK consular links, and the only country friendly to it was South Africa. The only air link was from South Africa so I had to travel there from Johannesburg, then return to Johannesburg, rather than visiting it en route.

“South Africa existed under apartheid. I found the people intelligent and cultured. I remember that it was commonplace in Cape Town to see men playing chess in the street. The hotel where I stayed gives an example of the very cheap pricing. It was a luxury hotel, and I had a suite of rooms at £5 per night, which even then was ridiculously cheap. It had a closed-circuit TV in the lobby, which attracted much interest as ordinary TV did not exist.”

Take a look back at Africa in 1970 through these fascinating images. For more photographs, visit Hailstone's brilliant Flickr site.

Midan Tahrir (Liberation Square), Cairo

Cairo

Nile Hilton Hotel, Cairo

Cairo

Sunset over the Nile, Cairo

November 29, 2020

Life-Sized and See-Through Body Display in Cairo, Egypt, 1954

November 29, 2020 1950s, Cairo, Egypt, science & technology

During the Cold War, East and West Germany competed against each other with espionage – and exhibitions. To win the favor of politically important Egypt, for example, each country staged industrial expos in Cairo.

At a 1954 exhibition shown here, East Germany showcased products ranging from porcelain to streetcars. The biggest draw, however, was the life-sized, see-through body display. Its transparent, illuminated body showed bones, veins, organs, and arteries in optimum working condition, suggesting the inherent superiority of the communist country’s standards of health and fitness.