On a quiet evening in Downtown Cairo recently, the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square opened its doors to a different kind of treasure — not gilded coffins or carved stone deities but photographs of Egypt as seen through Italian eyes more than a century ago.
The exhibition, “The Charm of Ancient Egypt through an Italian Lens”, brings together the works of three Italian photographers, Antonio Beato, Giovanni Frassani, and Enrico Leichter, who between 1860 and 1940 wandered across Egypt with their cameras, drawn to its monuments, its landscapes, and its people.
Stepping into Hall 18 on the museum’s ground floor, visitors are transported back to the 19th and early 20th centuries to begin a visual journey in which the works of these three pioneering Italian photographers bring the monuments and daily life of Egypt’s past into sharp focus.
Their lenses captured not just the grandeur of Pharaonic temples and the Pyramids, but also scenes of rural life along the Nile, farmers guiding oxen, villages at dusk, and landscapes that appear both familiar and eternal.
The soft grain of the photographs reveals the Pyramids not as objects on tourist postcards, but as towering silhouettes seen against seemingly endless skies. The Sphinx gazes not at tourists but at the horizon, as it has for millennia. In another image, a farmer guides his oxen along the Nile, his posture weary yet dignified in an image as timeless as the temples nearby.
“This is a window onto time and a living record that keeps the features of the past alive,” said Ali Abdel-Halim, director-general of the Egyptian Museum, adding that the exhibition is less about photography than it is about memory.
When Al-Ahram Weekly visited, people were leaning close to the photographs on show, some pointing out details, the texture of a stone or the expression on a child’s face, as if they were discovering Egypt for the first time even though the monuments themselves still stand just a few miles away.
The exhibition is also the story of a friendship between two cultures. Organised in partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo, it reflects the long ties that have existed between Egypt and Italy.
“Egypt has always been a muse for Italian artists. These are not just photographs; they are visions and moments where art and archaeology meet,” said Giuseppe Ciceri, coordinator of the Italian Archaeological Centre.
A short film reimagines Antonio Beato’s photographs by using artificial intelligence, breathing colour and motion into the old images. It brings the 19th-century photographer’s works to life using modern digital techniques, layering motion and colour onto Beato’s original images and offering viewers a fresh way to experience history.
Meanwhile Egyptologist and archival photography expert Francis Amin has delved into the lives and contributions of Beato, Frassani, and Leichter, offering insights into their journeys, their artistry, and their passion for capturing Egypt.
At the opening of the exhibition, Italian Deputy Ambassador to Egypt Mariella La Rocca and Consul Frederico Novellino spoke of how the images symbolise a cultural bond between the two countries that has lasted for generations.
The exhibition is more than just a collection of old images. It is an invitation to see Egypt not just through the grandeur of its monuments, but through the eyes of those who once fell in love with its light, its people, and its spirit.
The exhibition runs for three months and is open daily at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. It offers not only a look at Egypt’s past, but also a chance to feel something of the awe that these Italian photographers must have felt more than a century ago.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 4 September, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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