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Archive Erich Holm von Prosch Yemen 1954-56

Erich Holm von Prosch (1909-1994)

The geologist Dr. Erich Holm von Prosch was one of the few Europeans to have worked for some time in North Yemen in the 1950s. During the reign of Imam Ahmad bin Yahya (1948-1962) he lived from 1954 to 1956 in Salif on the Red Sea with a group of geologists, geophysicists and topographers (C. Deilmann, Prakla) in a newly built camp in order to explore the possibilities of a successful search for crude oil in the Tihama. 

He kept systematically diaries during his stay, leaving behind an extensive collection of photographs and slides, authentic documents from a time when Yemen crossed the threshold to modern times. The photographs are now in the image archive The Image of the Orient. 

A part of the collection has been already digitized and more than 100 images are online (see images below). A first article with numerous illustrations was published in 2018 in the journal Yemen Report, Issue 49.1-2, pp. 85-96. See the PDF here zum PDF.

Erich Holm von Prosch returned to Yemen for several months from 1974 to 1975 at the invitation of the Yemen Minerals and Petroleum Authority; an extensive slide collection also exists from this early period, when relatively few tourists had traveled to the country. A small selection is already digitized and accessible here Sadah - Archive Erich Holm von Prosch Yemen 1974-75 .

Sunday, 12 June 2016