An unusual view of Early Twentieth Century Benghazi

Abstract

Benghazi has been photographed many times from the air, but few are aware that the layout of the city was-recorded in air photographs taken very early in the twentieth century. (International Archiv für Photogrametrie 1914). These photographs provide an unusually detailed impression of the streets, public buildings and dwellings of the city, and also allow students of the Middle Eastern and North African city to observe the evolution of the city by studying later comparative photography. Libya is especially rich in such imagery at least for the recent past (Allan 1969). The purpose of this brief study is to draw attention to the rich source of evidence available in air photo records through an interpretation of an early twentieth century image along with just one of the more recent photographs taken in this area in 1965. The determination of the date of the old photo-mosaic is the first task of interpretation. The journal in which it was published appeared in 1914, which places the image earlier than the outbreak of World War I and possibly prior to the occupation of northern Libya by Italian forces in 1911. The photo shows no evidence of the buildings which were constructed by the Italian colonists. Nor has there been any significant transformation at the harbour. In the eastern extremity of the early twentieth century city there is an assemblage of military equipment, accommodation and transport. Whether this is evidence of Turkish or Italian occupation is difficult to determine, and so we must be satisfied at this stage to date the photographs between 1911 and 1913.