Annie's New Letters (& notes): Old Photos & maps of Gaza ... An ancient place where people have lived longer than recorded history: It is often forgotten that Gaza was once the richest port in the Eastern Mediterranean, super wealthy from the export of Arabian incense and Indian spices.

Friday, December 19, 2025

Old Photos & maps of Gaza ... An ancient place where people have lived longer than recorded history: It is often forgotten that Gaza was once the richest port in the Eastern Mediterranean, super wealthy from the export of Arabian incense and Indian spices.

Palestinian Sheikh from Gaza, 1870 (Photo by Félix Bonfils, University of Pennsylvania Collection)

Gaza, Palestine circa c1900.

Early 1900's photo of watermelon vendors in Gaza, Palestine

Gaza in 1905, from the terrace of the Latin presbytery, next to the Catholic church of Gaza, recently bombed by the IDF

Gaza in 1922 Seen from Tell Harubah, the heart of ancient Gaza and occupied consistently since the Bronze Age

1920, Gaza, Palestine.

The ancient Byzantine Church of St Porphyrios, Gaza. Founded 425CE. Photographed by the Ecole Biblique 1922. Bombed by the IDF 2024.

Gaza after surrender to the British after WWI.

Crusader-era oculus from the al-Umari mosque, Gaza Taken 1920

Crusader-era doorway from Gaza Photographed 1920 The trade connections of ancient Gaza From the exhibition Trésors sauvés de Gaza - 5000 ans d'histoire at L'Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.

Palestine... Gaza pottery merchants taking wares to market...Circa 1930's

Palestine... Unloading a great fish-net, Gaza. 1937

Palestine.... A camel-load of tibbin going to Gaza... Circa 1930s

1939, Gaza, Palestine: Palestinian mounted police on one of the city’s streets.

1935, Aircraft Hanno, Imperial Airways, Gaza, Palestine 🇵🇸 The airfield was constructed in 1917 and one of the first to be built in Palestine.

Gaza's beach 1943

Gaza - The Main Road 1947

The trade connections of ancient Gaza It is often forgotten that Gaza was once the richest port in the Eastern Mediterranean, super wealthy from the export of Arabian incense and Indian spices.

Map of Mesopotamia - The Cradle of Civilization

The trade connections of ancient Gaza mosaics- From the exhibition Trésors sauvés de Gaza - 5000 ans d'histoire at L'Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris

10 December 1948

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..." https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Palestine refugees at Khan Yunus camp in Gaza, near the Egyptian border. Nearly 200,000 refugees, mostly women and children were placed in the Gaza area, of a total of some 750,000 in camps and assembly centres throughout Palestine UN Photo Dec 1 1948 https://www.un.org/en

Palestinian refugees in Gaza 1948

An old man looks yearningly toward his home through the barbed wire fence of the "Rimal and Beach Camp" which is the home of 17,000 Arab refugees on the shores of the Mediterranean just outside Gaza City. 1956 photo by INS Charles Arnot