Name of Object:

Construction Site at Shellal

Other name of the Object (second name):

Egyptian and migrant labourers working on the construction of the first dam on the Nile

Name in original language:

Cantiere a Scellal

Location:

Rome, Italy

Holding Institution:

Italian Geographical Society (SGI)

 About Italian Geographical Society (SGI), Rome

Holding Institution (original language):

Società Geografica Italiana (SGI)

Date of Object:

1900

Author:

Giulio d’Aspremont

Description:

In 1900, Count Giulio d’Aspremont, an Italian diplomat, visited the construction site of the first dam across the Nile (today known as the Aswan Low Dam or Old Aswan Dam). He took several pictures of the works and of the monuments on the island of Philae that were going to be submerged by the water. He published some of them on the Bulletin of the Italian Geographical Society, where he wrote that up to 2,000 Italian workers were employed in the works (as stone-cutters, miners and masons), out of a total labour force of about 10,000 or 12,000; an Italian village had sprung up on the Nile banks, with modest little houses, trattorias and shops.

Archival or Bibliographical Reference:

“Bollettino della Società geografica”, serie IV, 1901, vol. II, n. 6, p. 548

Citation of this web page:

Patrizia Pampana "Construction Site at Shellal" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2025.
https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;it;52;en

Prepared by: Patrizia Pampana
Copyedited by: Anne Dowell

MWNF Working Number: IT1 052