The Photo Collection of Edith Durham

Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, 1903 - 1913

ED016_RAI 400.13209 Albania. Two men of the Plan tribe in the Pulat/Pult region who guided Edith Durham from Plan to Xhan and then on to Theth in the northern Albanian mountains (Photo: Edith Durham, 27 May 1908). “Time was flying. I wanted to see all High Albania. It was time to move on. The kirijee then said he had a bad foot and was tired of the journey, so the Padre kindly lent me his own man to take me to Thethi. We had a second as escort. The way, said the Padre, was good, but after sitting my reeling, struggling beast for some ten minutes over large rocks, to shrieks of “Jesus, Maria, Joseph!” which were supposed to encourage it, I dismounted, and was in for another roasting tramp. The ever-rising track swung round the head of the valley, above the source of the Kiri, and over the Chafa Bashit (some 4000 feet), into Shala. Once up and over, all Shala lay before us and below us, a long, lorn wall of huge, jagged mountains, still snow-capped, with the Lumi Shalit flowing in the valley at their feet. I daresay you have never heard of Shala. I have looked towards Shala and the beyond for years – the wild heart of a wild land.” (Edith Durham, High Albania, 1909).