During the second half of the 19th century, Egypt and Nubia became the tourist destination of choice for the upper classes of Europe and America. Some travellers took with them a new invention: the photographic camera, which allowed them to capture so many unforgettable places. Professional photographers provided images of the monuments to tourists hungry for souvenirs and published lavishly illustrated books to meet the European demand. 19th century camera As the first of the Nubian temples, Debod was photographed on several occasions by some of these pioneers of photography in Egypt: Marcel du Camp -who travelled the Valley of the Nile with Gustave Flaubert- from 1849 to 1851, the engineer Félix Teynard in 1851-1852, the British photographer Francis Frith in 1856-1857, Pascal Sebah from Turkey or Antonio Beato around 1875. Their images reflect the progressive damage suffered by the monument, which in the course of 25 years lost the front façade, part of the north façade and the mammisi. The gateway placed closest to the temple also collapsed a few years later. Marcel du Camp (1849-51) The 1906 edition of the Baedeker guide, the most popular guidebook for tourists at the time, explains that the building was wrecked by an earthquake that hit the region in 1868. However, photographs show that the ruin was rather the result of continuous looting by nearby inhabitants, who used the stone as building material. The ashlar blocks taken from the temple were certainly first-rate material. Antonio Beato (1875)