Plate 192 Pyramids of Geezeh/Giza After David Roberts

This iconic view by Roberts depicts the Pyramids of Cheops and Chephren with the Great Sphinx of Giza visible to the left. These ancient wonders were the largest buildings ever created with the Pyramid of Cheops measuring over 3,000,000 cubic feet. The pyramid measures 485 feet in height which was not beaten until 4,000 years later with the construction of the Gothic cathedral in Cologne.
 
The workforce behind the pyramids consisted of 50,000 men who were 'recruited for only three-and-a-half months a year, at the time of the floods, over a period of 22 years. Peasants and young men from all walks of life constituted the backbone of the seasonal army that worked on the building site for the pharaoh, whose divine nature justified the huge size of the tomb and the effort required to build it.' (1) 
 
The drawings and watercolours from this sketching tour by David Roberts of the Holy Land and Egypt were collated together into folios and released over a seven year period between 1842 and 1849 by the publisher F.G. Moon from 20 Threadneedle Street London. This lithograph is an original First Edition version and was published on the 1st June 1848. Louis Haghe (the Belgian lithographer and friend of Roberts) oversaw and produced all of the lithographs for this series.
 
Medium: Original First Edition Lithograph, Full Plate, hand coloured on thick woven paper.
 
Full Plate 192.
 
Inscribed l.r. 'Pyramids of Geezeh', 33.7 x 53.5 cm (picture size), framed (needs wall fixings to be attached to back of frame).
 
Provenance: The Parker Gallery (2 Albemarle Street, London).
 
References:
 
(1) Fabio Bourbon (ed). Yesterday and Today: Egypt. Swan Hill Press: London, 1996, p.246. Translated by A.B.A., Milano.