Adventurer's photos capture a bygone Mecca

By Barry Neild for CNN

November 18, 2010 -- Updated 1954 GMT (0354 HKT)

Audio slideshow: Traveller photographs Mecca in 1885

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje visited Mecca in 1885 taking photos and making sound recordings
• Sepia images show city has changed almost beyond recognition in many ways
• Snouck lived a colorful life, converting to Islam and fleeing accusations of theft

(CNN) -- He was an adventurer, a scholar, and possibly a spy -- but as Dutchman Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje proved with his rare 1885 photographs and sound recordings of Mecca, he was also a pioneering multimedia journalist.