First Pylon - French Inscription Carved on the Eastern Embrasure at Point H, Island of Fila (Philae)

About this artwork

Félix Teynard was one of several artists and scholars who flocked to Egypt to employ the new medium of photography to document ancient sites and complex hieroglyphics ripe for study. Originally trained as a civil engineer, he offered his services to the French Academy of Sciences in 1851, and by the end of that year he had set sail southward on the Nile. Between 1851 and 1852, Teynard made an extensive record of the Nile valley, ultimately producing 160 salted paper prints covering one thousand ...

Art Historical Context

Félix Teynard’s 1851/52 salted paper print captures the First Pylon of the ancient Temple of Isis on Egypt’s Philae Island, focusing on a French inscription carved into the eastern embrasure. Created during Teynard’s pioneering photographic expedition along the Nile, the image records both the monumental scale of pharaonic architecture and the traces left by later European visitors. The warm, textured tones of the salted paper process lend the scene a soft, atmospheric quality that was characteristic of early photography. Philae held deep religious significance for ancient Egyptians as a sacred site associated with Isis, and by the mid-nineteenth century it had become a destination for scholars and travelers. Teynard’s choice to highlight the French carving underscores the layered history of the monument—ancient temple walls now bearing modern graffiti—while also documenting the growing European fascination with Egyptology. As one of the earliest photographic records of the site, this print exemplifies how the new medium allowed precise, on-site documentation of antiquities at a moment when many monuments faced increasing threats from flooding and tourism. Today it offers viewers a rare glimpse of Philae before the island was submerged by the Aswan Dam in the twentieth century.

About the Artist

Félix Teynard · 1817–1892

**Félix Teynard (1817–1892)** was a pioneering French photographer whose work captured the ancient wonders of Egypt and Nubia with unprecedented precision and artistry. Born on January 14, 1817, in Saint-Flour, he trained as a civil engineer in Grenoble, a hub of Egyptology that likely sparked his fascination with ancient architecture. Little is documented about his early life or formal photograph...