Plan of a Desert Cemetery and the Site of Sinai Monastery, 1776

This is an original antique copper engraving from 1776, plate XLIV of the first volume of Carsten Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie. It holds two plans. The upper is captioned Grond-tekening van eene Begraafplaats op een Berg in de Woestyne. and Plan d'un Cimetiere sur une Montagne au Desert., the plan of a burial place on a mountain in the desert. The lower is captioned Legging van het Klooster aan den Berg Sinaï. and Situation du Convent à la Montagne de Sinaï., the setting of the monastery at Mount Sinai.

The upper plan shows a long walled enclosure on the summit of a hill, divided into two parts and filled with small grave markers, with a small walled building at its right end. Scattered upright stones stand on the slopes around it, and the hill is drawn in concentric rings of hachure. A scale bar is marked Pass: Geom: from 10 to 40. The lower plan shows a valley winding between heavily hachured mountains. At the left the monastery, marked A, is drawn as a square walled building beside a planted garden. A track runs to the right from it past small walled plots to an open plain at the right, marked B and dotted with trees and paths. A compass rose sits at the lower left, and the scale bar reads Passus Geom: s. 1/3 Leuc: gall:.

No artist's or engraver's name is lettered on the plate. The plate number Tab: XLIV. is engraved at the upper right; points A and B are the viewpoints of the two views of the monastery on plates XLVII and XLVIII.

The plate belongs to the first volume of Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins, marked TOME PREMIER and Traduit de l'Allemand on its title page, which carries the imprint of S. J. Baalde at Amsterdam and J. van Schoonhoven and Comp. at Utrecht and the date MDCCLXXVI. The account was first published in German at Copenhagen; this is the French translation printed in Amsterdam and Utrecht. Carsten Niebuhr (1733 to 1815) was a German born surveyor in Danish service and the only member of the Danish expedition to Arabia (1761 to 1767), sent by King Frederick V of Denmark, to return alive.

Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. Foxing over much of the margin. All four corners are present. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the left.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.