Interesting AIF photo - Egypt 1915

[FramFramson]

So a fellow on imgur posted this image with the title "This picture my great-grandfather took is 100 years old today. (1st A.I.F)".



And I just have to ask. On the right there, in the midground... is that fellow peeing on the sphinx? 'Cause it surrrrre looks like he is.

[Etranger]

Although I can well believe that such things did occur, he's actually quite a long way from the Sphinx, which is a big object (66 feet high, according to wiki). That looks like a scratch or mark, probably on the original negative or occurring during processing. You're right about the pose suggesting a Box Brownie Scurv! 

Speaking of bad acts and the Sphinx, my wife's grandfather allegedly liberated a chunk of the Sphinx's nose during WWII (he was with the 8th Army). If true then the piece of coarse sandstone that he brought back that is sitting in the drawer will remain firmly under lock and key..........

[FramFramson]

That's true, it's a lot bigger than would be suggested if that fellow was right next to it. And that "stream" does look like an inadvertently-placed scratch. Ah well.

I'm sure the sphinx has been piddled on many times, possibly even by Aussies... but sadly for history, this majestic event was never captured on film. 

[Emir of Askaristan]

I've stood at much the same spot when I visited Egypt a few years ago. As the Sphinx is so very old the ground level is now much higher. Now that it has been fully excavated you can walk round the whole body, which sits in a deep "recess". I'm not sure when this was done but either way your man is standing between the buried paws of the Sphinx.

I wonder if one of the Egyptians standing around is great grandfather of the chap who stood with his hand out beside me asking for money for a "photography pass - photography pass!" when I took my pics 

[Ignatieff]

Very cool.  My grandfather Cornelius (and his elder brother Archibald - they joined up the same day) were in the 1/5 Argylls, who were sent there in early 1916, having been in action in Gallipoli since June 1915   Presumably the battalion was cut up to be sent to what by that time was a relatively quiet part of the war.   Two nice years in the desert followed, when they were then sent back to a quiet part of the Western Front in April 1918, just in time for.....Kaiserschlacht!  Oh well, at least they had good suntans.