Antique Print of Obelisk Alexandria by De Bruyn (c.1720)

Description: Untitled print of Obelisk Alexandria (Egypt). De Bruijn was in Alexandria in the beginning of June 1681. This obelisk dates from 1468 BC and stood originally, together with a like one, in Heliopolis. In 10 BC the emperor Augustus had them transported to Alexandria and erected before the temple of Julius Caesar, the Caesarium. In the last century both obelisks were transported to the western world. The one to London where it was set up on the embankment of the Thames; the other - the one depicted here - to New York where it got a place in Central Park.

Artists and Engravers: Cornelis de Bruijn (also spelled Cornelius de Bruyn, pronounced (1652 – 1726/7) was a Dutch artist and traveler. He made two large tours and published illustrated books with his observations of people, buildings, plants and animals. Best known as a landscape artist, Le Bruyn travelled widely from a young age to Vienna, on to Rome then to Smyrna, Constantinople, Egypt, Jerusalem, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey. Everywhere he went Le Bruyn depicted the scenes around him, he was especially interested in places of antiquity or historic interest, and his are the first images of the interior of a pyramid and Jerusalem to be widely available to Westerners. After an eight-year stay in Venice, Le Bruyn returned to The Hague in 1693 to publish this first book.