While many iconic landmarks have stood for centuries, photography is a relatively recent invention, emerging in the mid-1800s. Before that, these sites were immortalized through paintings, drawings, and writings, but with the advent of cameras, people were able to capture real-life images of the world’s most historic places for the first time. Imagine being the first person to photograph the Great Pyramids or the Eiffel Tower.
Thanks to early photographers like Horace Vernet and Frédéric Goupil-Fesquet, we now have a visual record of these famous structures. Here are 15 of the oldest known photos ever taken of some of the world’s most famous landmarks, offering a rare glimpse into the past.
Related: Here Are the Oldest Known Videos That Survived To This Day
1. The earliest known photograph of the White House, by John Plumbe, Jr., 1846
2. Thomas Child's photo of the Great Wall of China’s Nankou Pass, 1870
3. One of the oldest photographs of Rome and the Colosseum by Richard Jones in 1846
4. This 1875 snapshot of the Routh family reveling at Stonehenge may very well be the oldest existing photograph of the site
5. Captured during the second Powell Expedition in 1871, this photo shows the Colorado River at the base of the Grand Canyon. Since the first expedition didn’t yield any photographs, this image stands as one of the earliest known captures of the canyon.
6. The Eiffel Tower under construction, 1878
7. One of the earliest photos of Yosemite Falls in 1861, by Carleton Watkins
8. In 1884, the Statue of Liberty was captured on camera in Paris, France, right before its disassembly and journey to New York
9. This photo of the Great Pyramid at Giza, captured in 1839, sis considered one of Africa's earliest photographs and the very first of the pyramids. This historic image was taken by the renowned photographers Horace Vernet and Frédéric Goupil-Fesquet.
10. The Great Sphynx by Maxime du Camp in 1849
11. Dr. John Murray's View of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, 1856
12. Photo by Howard Somervell on the last day of the 1921 Mount Everest Reconnaissance expedition
13. During the 1870s and 1880s, William M. Frej was among the pioneers in photographing Mayan pyramids and various pre-Columbian archaeological sites
14. Temple Chichenitza by Maudslay, 1900
15. Times Square, then Long Acre Square, circa 1898-1900
