The French Institute for Oriental Archaeology ( part 1)

"If this city could talk, you'd hear the echoes calling history from every corner of the city! "The era of the 1880's, during the end of the french expeditions... The era during which there were expeditions that discovered and dug up the past to document it for the present. The Past which we still live on and the past that still reminds us daily of how great and glorious we were....

What I love about Cairo is that it always surprises you! you never know what is hidden for you and what hidden gems you'll stumble upon if you just let your feet wonder the streets of the city. In the city of cairo,  you'll always discover and what you discover will always lead you back to your ancestral linage. 

Just a normal day, I went down to print some photos for an upcoming show, I headed to a place that was recommended by a friend. I arrived to the address but couldn't find the place, kept searching for hours but still there was nothing ! so I decided to wonder off from the area especially after being beaten by the heat of the sun, I asked another friend for help and she recommended a place. I arrived there and there it was a Golden mine hidden in the middle of Downtown Cairo. A mine for printers, the second oldest printing press in Egypt that was founded in 1880's under the French. A hidden spot in Al Mounira neighborhood, The French Institute of Oriental Archeology (IFAO), the home of archeology in Egypt. A treasured gem.... 

Inside the Museum of the old press

Before the printing press landed in Almounira palace it was in its initial place near Noubar Pasha street, in The Antique khana. Yet, a bigger space was needed at that time. So later in 1907 the press was moved to its current spot, Al Mounira Palace, under the french Egyptologist, Emile Chassinat who became the founder and the manager of the institute and the press. To this date the press is working and the institute is serving its purpose as the hub for oriental archeological studies under the french institute. 

The machine above is the first version of a monotype printer.

The monotype printer.

Where you register the letter and it turns into a dot then the monotype printer turns it into a letter.

Letter cases with different fonts that we still use till now !

Ink Trials area

A page of a book

where you collect all the letters and place it together to form a page, you then run it through a printing press to print it.

Imagine how long would a process like this take, just collecting the letters and creating one page !

Hieroglyphic letters

Entering here you smell and feel the past, you feel it through the old grayish walls, the sound of the cracked wooden floor, the rustic windows, the stained pages of the old printed books, the last surviving book that was printed here using the old machines...you smell the old wood, the old ink, the last bits of charcoal used to work the machines... all this compiles to draw an image of the history of the glorious ages this printing press once lived!

The Index of letters

Lilian amin, such a sweet personality who was very helpful and was so open to showing me around the museum and talking to me about the endless facilities of the space !

Lilian is the Assistant editor.

Here she was showing me the letter cases and talking me through the process of how a worker would compile a book and put a page together. A process that required so much Patience!

Typo Boston Machine 1898

This was the first development press for the hand printing and it used to do all kinds of printing, such as flyers, letters, books, envelopes etc.