To travelers, Egypt is a place of dreams: a country whose lifeblood is a mighty river, flowing from the heart of Africa. Along the fertile fringe of its banks an astonishing civilization raised spectacular monuments that our modern minds can hardly encompass. For centuries this past dominated travelers' minds yet the present and its great buildings too engaged their interest and admiration and gave them pleasure. The experience of Egypt has over the centuries inspired travelers to write of what they saw and tried to understand. These travelers' observations are part of the history of modern Egypt, for seeing ourselves through others' eyes helps us to understand ourselves. The compilers of this anthology have selected records of travelers from many countries and cultures over many centuries, and, mainly using the Nile for a pathway, here offer these travelers' observations on the many facets of Egypt. The collection includes extracts from the writings of Herodotus, Strabo, Ibn Hawkal, al-Muqaddasi, Pierre Loti, Rudyard Kipling, Florence Nightingale, and many more.
Book Description
"Egypt is one of the two wings of the world, and the excellences of which it can boast are countless. Its metropolis is the dome of Islam, its river the most splendid of rivers." al-Muqaddasi, c. 1000
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About the Author
Deborah Manley has lived in India, Canada, and Nigeria. She is the author of a number of books, including a biography of Henry Salt and The Trans-Siberian Railway: A Traveller's Anthology.
Sahar Abdel-Hakim is an assistant professor in the Department of English at Cairo University. She is the author of a number of essays on women travelers to Egypt.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must for Travel To Egypt,
This review is from: Traveling Through Egypt (Paperback)
Traveling Through Egypt From 450 B.C. To the Twentieth Century, Edited By Deborah Manley and Sahar Abdel-HakimThis is a wonderful concept for a travel book, one which I have not encountered recently. The editors have taken travel notes and travelogs from travelers through Egypt throughout written history. The observations about Egypt compiled in this book are from 115 different writers, the earliest being from Strabo who lived from 63 BC - 23 A.D., and they give a compendium of fascinating facts about this ancient country. Early travelers noted in great details the land, climate, workers and their tools, various monuments and buildings from pre-history, which no longer exist. The writers speak of the importance and impact of the various stages of the Nile River in different seasons. End notes tell a little about each of the writers. The book is absolutely fascinating and a MUST for anyone who intends to see Egypt.
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Intriguing Album of Verbal Snapshots from a Land of Timeless Wonder,
By David Crumm "Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine" (Canton, Michigan) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Traveling Through Egypt (Paperback)
A fascination with Egypt runs through American culture from our currency to our current crop of Hollywood blockbusters, which continue to recycle mummy mythology. Even a century ago, American producers of silent films reached into ancient Egypt for potent imagery, which they jury-rigged in Hollywood soundstages. Right now, teenagers playing computer games may encounter imagery of the ancient library of Alexandria, while building their own virtual civilizations.That's why this volume edited by Deborah Manley and Sahar Abdel-Hakim is such a valuable and intriguing insight into travelers' impressions of Egypt over many centuries - or, to be more accurate, over several millennia. They include in this book some excerpts from Herodotus in 450 BC. Rudyard Kipling, in a 1913 essay, warns that Egypt holds a host of infuriating secrets, many of which he attributes to political complications forced upon Egypt by imperial powers. Explaining Egypt is like trying "to explain baseball to an Englishman or the Eton Wall game to a citizen of the United States." The hundreds of excerpts in this book try to meet Kipling's challenge by sharing snapshots from travelers from many lands, cultures and eras.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Egypt, as Herodotus tells us, is the gift of the Nile, and the Nile once dominated the country even more than it does today, as these first writers show. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Red Sea, Upper Egypt, Great Pyramid, Mount Sinai, Old Cairo, Abu Simbel, Sultan Hassan, Suez Canal, The Nilometer, Mehemet Ali, Port Said, Ibn Battuta, Harriet Martineau, Gebel Ataka, Constance Sitwell, Lake Nasser, Tombs of the Caliphs, Elizabeth Cooper, Winter Palace, Abou Simbel, Florence Nightingale, Pierre Loti, Other Side, River Nile, Commander of the Faithful Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Egypt, as Herodotus tells us, is the gift of the Nile, and the Nile once dominated the country even more than it does today, as these first writers show. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Red Sea, Upper Egypt, Great Pyramid, Mount Sinai, Old Cairo, Abu Simbel, Sultan Hassan, Suez Canal, The Nilometer, Mehemet Ali, Port Said, Ibn Battuta, Harriet Martineau, Gebel Ataka, Constance Sitwell, Lake Nasser, Tombs of the Caliphs, Elizabeth Cooper, Winter Palace, Abou Simbel, Florence Nightingale, Pierre Loti, Other Side, River Nile, Commander of the Faithful Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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