Travel
[MESOPOTAMIA]. - PIETSCHMANN, Viktor; Heinrich HANDEL-MAZZETTI
Mesopotamien-Expedition des Naturwissenschaftlichen Orientvereins im Jahre 1910
Braumüller, Vienna 1912. 25 original black and white photographs (size: 110mm x 85 mm) mounted on card (size: 245mm x 205mm), each with printed description pasted underneath. 2pp. of printed index of 25 photographs and publication pamphlet of a lecture held on January 10, 1912 by Pietschmann with the same title (Verein zur Verbreitung naturwissenschaftlicher Kenntnisse in Wien, Band 52; Braumueller, Vienna, 1912.), pale grey wrappers. A fine and very scarce collection housed in a dark claret red cloth box, title stamped in gilt on top cover, gilt border, silk ribbon, lightly rubbed but very attractive.
This complete collection of photographs is a great rarity. It was never meant to be put together and published for commercial purposes but merely as a document for the Society of Natural Sciences and the Orient. In 1910 Dr. Viktor Pietschmann and Dr. Heinrich Baron Handel-Mazzetti travelled to the Mesopotamia region in order to research the fauna and flora around the areas of the Euphrates and Tigris headwaters, the Taurus and Northern Syria. The areas were explored on foot and crossed four times. Samples were also taken and examined from along the two rivers. The expedition in Aleppo,commenced in March 1910, and would take 8 months. The photographs were put in order to correspond with the course of the expedition: (1) Chan in Deir es Zor (on the Euphrates) (2) Baghdad (3) Main square in Kerbela (4) Royal Palace of Babylon; on the plateau to the right, the Lion of Babylon (5) Bedouin village Charnina on the Tigris (6) City wall of Mosul (7) Magharât Canyon in the Djebel Sindjar (probably Gebel hills) (8) The Sacred Pool of Abraham (Ain Ibrahim) in Urfa (9) Diabekr; the old city wall at the confluence of the aqueduct (10) Mardin; view of the old castle (11) Samarra; the great mosque (12) Bedouin village on the lower Tigris (13) Channel of Basra at low tide (14) Valley accessed by the Tigris between Dschesiret-ibm-Omar and Sert, ca. 550 m (15) Valley of the Kjachta Su in the Kataonian Taurus with the tumulus of Karakusch; in front, the village Akar (16) Canyon, ruins and old Arabian bridge of Kjachta, as seen from the Southwest (17) Kjachta, village, ruins, as seen from north (18) Canyon of Karatschor between Kjachta and Malatja, 1200m (19) Tschirik Jailassi on the Nemrud Dagh near Kjachta, 1970m; specially thatched mountain huts, Kurdish herdsmen, Kaimakam (to the left), local police (20) Tumulus of Antiochus I on the top of the Nemrud Dagh, 2260m (21) Village Goeldschik on the lake of the western Tigris, 1400m (22) Batman köprü on the Sassun in the Armenian Taurus, Vilajet Bitlis (23) Canyon of the Sassun within Kabildjous with Meleto Dagh, 3150m
Price: £ 2750
US Dollar Price: $ 5460
Stock Number: 45936