A photo by Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje/Al Sayyid Abd al Ghaffar showing a view of the Grand Mosque during a samalat at the Ka'aba.
A photo by Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje/Al Sayyid Abd al Ghaffar showing a view of the Grand Mosque during a samalat at the Ka'aba.
Mecca as it appeared 125 years ago
Photography was a curious novelty when a Dutch scholar arrived in Jeddah in 1885. Now a Dubai gallery is exhibiting the pioneering portraits that he and a colleague took of the Haj that year.