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.

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. They are both founding members of the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE).