drawing;
print study
- Museum number
- 2012,5033.59
- Description
-
View of Benghazi; preparatory drawing for plate 3 in Smith and Porcher, 'History of the Recent Discoveries at Cyrene', 1864
Watercolour, heightened with white, on a sheet of paper stuck down onto a sheet of card
- Production date
- 1860-1861
- Dimensions
-
Height: 457 millimetres (mount)
-
Height: 214 millimetres
-
Width: 571 millimetres (mount)
-
Width: 354 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Robert Murdoch Smith and Edwin Augustus Porcher, 'History of the Recent Discoveries at Cyrene, made during an Expedition ot the Cyrenaica in 1860-61, under the auspices of Her Majesty's government' (London, 1864), p.13-14:
'...we did not reach Benghazi till noon of the 30th [November 1860]...resolved to adopt Benghazi as our "base of operations."...At the landing-place we were received by some officers sent by the Kaimakam, who informed us that rooms had been prepared for our accommodation at the Castle. Saddle-horses also were in waiting, out of compliment rather than for use, the distance to the Castle being only some fifty yards...Benghazi, built on the site of the ancient Hesperides or Berenice, occupies the point of a narrow strip of land between the sea and a shallow salt lake or lagoon. A belt of palm trees behind the town, and the solitary minaret of a mosque, are the only objects that rise above the monotonous level of the surrounding country, and give any distinctive character to the scene...The streets and houses in the town are wretched in the extreme. The houses, if such they may be called, are all built of small stones plastered and held together with mud. The consequence is, that the town is half laid in ruins every winter by the rain, and as but few of the fallen houses are ever rebuilt, the miserable appearance of the streets may easily be imagined...The Castle, which stands on one side of the entrance to the harbour, consists of a number of houses enclosed by a quadrangular wall with round flanking towers at the corners. The masonry is very little superior to that of the rest of the town; in fact, the walls are so badly built that they would soon collapse under the concussion of the fire of their own guns. One range of houses is used as a barrack for the wing of an infantry regiment, another as the prison, and the remaining buildings as the residence and council-chamber of the Kaimakam.
The English Consulate, and a few two-storied houses lately built close by it, give a respectable appearance to the part of the town near the Castle. When we were at Benghazi, some missionaries from the Propaganda at Rome were building in this quarter a good substantial house and chapel, which promised to become by far the finest structure in the town.'.
Dorothy M. Thorn, 'The Four Seasons of Cyrene: The Excavation and Explorations in 1861 of Lieutenants R. Murdoch Smith, R.E. and Edwin A. Porcher, R.N.' (Rome, 2007), pp.181-204
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1894
- Acquisition notes
- See Officers Reports 7 June 1894
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 2012,5033.59