RIYADH: There are now 7,000 rare photographs at King Abdul Aziz Public Library, including of King Abdul Aziz and his sons taken by Princess Alice, granddaughter of Britain's Queen Victoria. The library also contains the first color photograph of King Abdul Aziz. Some of the pictures date to the beginnings of photography, and represent a visual historical reference of development in the Arabian Peninsula over the last century. It contains complete collections of the most famous Middle Eastern and Arab photographers; and photographs taken by travelers, soldiers, consuls, diplomats and visitors to the area over a considerable period of time. The library's rare photographs document the most prominent sights, events and persons in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, and the process of urban development in many Saudi cities. General Muhammad Sadeq Basha's collection is one of the most notable with its rare shots of the Two Holy Mosques. In addition to the collection, the library obtained Basha's four books which he wrote between 1880 and 1885, in which he recorded accurate information about the social and urban life in Makkah and Madina during the last half of the 19th century. Another record of historic events in the area is the Mirza collection, which contains information on the lifestyles of the Peninsula's residents, detailed Haj descriptions and Jeddah seaport traffic throughout the last two decades of the 19th century. More than 360 rare photographs of the Two Holy Mosques are found in Ahmad Basha Helmi's collection. He was assigned by the Egyptian government at the time to photograph the Two Holy Mosques. Helmi's collection also contains rare photographs of the Hejaz railway and other sights in the Kingdom. The library contains several collections of foreign photographers dating back to1880, including rare shots of Saudi and other Arabian Gulf states' cities taken by English officers at the beginning of the 19th century. The library categorized and verified these contents and made some available digitally and online.
