Bethlehem sits on a hilltop in the Judean highlands, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. When Bonfils photographed it in the 1870s, it was a thriving Palestinian town of stone houses, olive groves and busy markets. The crowded marketplace scene he captured is one of the most remarkable photographs in the entire collection — hundreds of Palestinians going about their daily lives, a moment frozen in time.
Bethlehem (General View), Félix Bonfils & Cie, circa 1870s. A crowded marketplace fills the foreground as the ancient stone city rises behind — one of the oldest cities in the world.Bethanie (Bethany), Félix Bonfils & Cie, circa 1870s. The peaceful village of Bethany nestled among olive trees and rolling hills, just east of Jerusalem.
Hebron — الخليل
Hebron — Al-Khalil in Arabic — is one of the oldest cities in the world and one of the most sacred in Palestine. Nestled among terraced hills covered in olive groves, Bonfils captured it from a hilltop, the city spreading across the valley below, its minarets rising above the ancient stone houses.
Hebron (Al-Khalil), Félix Bonfils & Cie, circa 1870s. The ancient city spreads across olive-covered terraced hills — one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
Jericho — أريحا
Jericho — the oldest city on earth — sits in the Jordan Valley, ringed by the dramatic cliffs of the Judean Desert. Bonfils captured Palestinian herders with their cattle against the vast timeless backdrop of the desert hills — a scene unchanged for millennia.
Jericho, Félix Bonfils & Cie, circa 1870s. Palestinian herders with cattle in the foreground, the ancient Judean Desert hills rising behind — the oldest city on earth.
Jerusalem — Holy Sites
Beyond the city walls of Jerusalem lie some of the most sacred sites in the world. Bonfils documented these holy sites with the same careful eye he brought to the streets and markets of Palestine — capturing not just their spiritual significance, but their physical reality as living places embedded in a Palestinian landscape.
Garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem, Félix Bonfils & Cie, circa 1870s. The ancient walled garden with its cypress trees, the walls of Jerusalem visible on the hilltop above.Damascus Gate (Bab al-Amoud), Jerusalem, Félix Bonfils & Cie, circa 1870s. Crowds of Palestinians pass through the magnificent northern gate of the Old City.Jérusalem du Mont des Oliviers — Jerusalem from the Mount of OlivesFelix Bonfils & Cie, No. 01, circa 1870s. Jerusalem spread across the horizon as seen from the ancient olive groves of the Mount of Olives — the Dome of the Rock and al-Haram al-Sharif at centre left, a lone figure standing in the foreground beside a stone terrace wall, an ancient olive tree reaching to the sky at right.
