After Luigi Mayer (Italian, ca. 1750–1803)
Engraving by Thomas Milton
From Views in Egypt, from the Original Drawings in the possession of Sir Robert Ainsli. London: Robert Bowyer, Historic Gallery, Pall Mall, 1801.
View of the Nilometer
Engraving, 12 3/8 x 9 in.
Printed lower left: L. Mayer, and lower center: Published by R. Bowyer, Historic Gallery, Pall Mall, 1802.
1999.13

The Italian landscape painter Luigi Mayer, an early traveler to the Middle East, published prints of important monuments in several volumes between 1801 and 1810. Mayer was employed by Sir Robert Ainslie, the British Ambassador to Turkey from 1776 to 1792, and painted what his patron wanted: colorful, picturesque scenes of the Orient. Views in Egypt (1801) contains 48 plates engraved by Thomas Milton. Vivid costumes enliven Mayer’s depiction of this historically important construction of AD 715 (which was completely rebuilt in 861). Connected to the Nile’s riverbed, this stone-lined well on Roda Island in Cairo measured the annual rise in water level in August and September, with calibrations of 19 divisions that corresponded to cubits (an ancient measure approximately equal to a human forearm in length). The nilometer also determined the tax Egypt paid to the caliph, the chief Muslim civil and religious ruler; according to this instrument, a higher flood level foretold a better harvest. This procedure for taxation continued until the mid-20th century.