The First Photos of Mecca & A Mysterious Nile Journey

In the 1880s, Muhammad Sadiq Bey became the first person to photograph Mecca and Medina, offering many Muslims their first glimpse of the Great Mosque and the Kaaba. Decades earlier, in 1852, Ernest Benecke captured a mysterious image of a dead crocodile aboard a Nile vessel, breaking from the typical photography of Egypt at the time. Two rare images, two forgotten photographers—rediscovered.