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“The photography of pilgrimage in Mecca started in the 1860s. The oldest known collection is Colonel Muhammad Sadiq’s one, an Egyptian officer, member of general staff of Muhammad’Ali. He used a kind of camera with plate of humid collodion which dated hardly 10 years. The Muhammad Husseini’s collection presented in this exhibition is dated 1908/1325, according to several clues. Doctor by training, M. Husseini was the British consul in Jeddah at this time. His photos make us see the most important steps of the pilgrimage one century ago: the Egyptian caravan’s arrival in Jeddah’s harbour; the landing of the mahmal and the kiswa; perceived sites along the way, as Eve’s grave in Jeddah, Turkish forts, Mecca Cherif’s house and several famous characters of this period, as ‘Abd el Rahman Pacha al Yusuf, ottoman emir of the pilgrimage. And, naturally, it shows the kaaba. Mina, Arafat and Mouzdalifa’s plain, as they can no more be seen nowadays. It emphasizes, at last, in a beautiful way, the touring approach, where all, rich or poor, are equal in front of the aridity of the way and the heat of the day. “