When, at the end of the 18th century, the growing interest of French intellectuals in the “Orient” brought them to Egypt, their main aim was to enrich their knowledge of antiquity. But some of them started to look at aspects of local life and activities. These drawings are a precious record of the traditional hydraulic machines used in Egypt for irrigation.

New water systems were introduced by the French in Algeria, as shown in this print published in an album called Les Colonies Françaises. In this specific case, wells were built in order to place entire communities in permanent settlements and keep them under control.

Cendere Hamidian Water Pump Station provided water for some areas in Istanbul using steam machines. It can be considered the modern counterpart of an ancient tradition of dams and hydraulic works in Ottoman Turkey and as the prosecution of a tradition of water treatment and distribution in the Islamic cities through water reservoirs and fountains.

This is an example of how traditional irrigation systems persisted alongside the innovative dams built by the Egyptian governors. Water had been a core issue for Egypt since antiquity. In choosing to catch a glimpse of everyday life, the photographer produced a valuable historical document.

Water distribution for daily use was also one of the great concerns of the reformers in Tunisia. During the government of Muhammad Bey, the ancient aqueduct of Zaghouan was modernised by the French engineer Pierre Colin, with a system of pumps bringing water to Tunis.

Pumping stations show interesting parallels across Europe and the Arab and Ottoman world, testimony to how modernisation followed a common path: distant countries with similar approaches to modernity or similar economic activities were reshaped by the globalisation of technology and needs.

This map shows the network of water distribution from Nahr el-Kaleb (river) through Beirut. Implemented from 1873 onwards, the Ottoman reform of water distribution in Beirut organised the treatment and distribution of water – an example of the reforms that reshaped urban infrastructure.

In Egypt, Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds collaborated with Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha on the building of the new dams along the Nile. He planned the construction of a canal along the Isthmus of Suez and, with Ferdinand de Lesseps, he obtained the concession for the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez.

An example of a dam built not only for irrigation but also to serve for the needs of a factory. This dam was built for the chocolate factory Menier, which processed its products using the energy derived from the force of water.

Water distribution based on modern technology was implemented in the second half of the 19th century through the reforms issued by the Ottoman sultans. For example in Beirut, water treatment and distribution was organised through the Beirut Water Company in Dbayeh.

The building of dams on the Nile to provide continuous irrigation, independent from floods, continued through the 19th and 20th centuries. The Delta Barrage, one of the most famous dams, was commissioned by Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha from the French explorer Linant de Bellefonds and the French engineer Eugène Mougel. Muhammad ‘Ali was the first to deal with old needs (like irrigation) with new technical tools.

Giulio d’Aspremont documented for the Società Geografica Italiana the construction of the Old Aswan Dam on the Nile, in southern Egypt. The dam was built by the British engineer William Willcocks, during the British occupation of Egypt, as part of a plan to provide water for irrigation year round.

The Old Aswan Dam was built next to the first cataract of the Nile river. It reshaped the surrounding environment: irrigation no longer depended on floods. European workers were attracted by this job opportunity and recreated in Egypt their own traditional social fabric.

The Società Geografica Italiana, founded in 1867, conducted geographical studies and explorations of regions still little known in the second half of the 19th century, such as the course of the Nile river in its southern part and especially eastern Africa.

Italian immigrants working side by side with local Egyptian workers at the construction site of the Old Aswan Dam on the Nile.

The great barrage on the Nile Delta was built during the government of Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha, but it had to be restored in the following decades because of technical problems. It was famous as a tourist site for Europeans travelling to Egypt in the second part of the 19th century.

A photograph from the Yıldız Album of Sultan ‘Abd al-Hamid, showing the steam machines for pumping and distributing water from Cendere Hamidian Water Pump Station to Istanbul. The Yıldız Album is a vast collection of photographs documenting all the technical, educational, social, military and civilian innovations introduced in the Ottoman Empire by Sultan ‘Abd al-Hamid.

A photograph from Yıldız Album of Sultan ‘Abd al-Hamid, showing the steam machines for pumping and distributing water from Cendere Hamidian Water Pump Station to Istanbul.

The Sennar Dam, completed in 1925 in the city of Sennar, Sudan, was one of the dams built along the Nile to provide balanced irrigation year round. This dam provided water for irrigation of cotton crops of the Jazirah plan and for hydroelectric power.