"No land on earth has been so long observed as Egypt, which was attracting awestruck travellers back in the days of Herodotus and Julius Caesar. Then came pilgrims to Sinai, crusaders and Napoleon, followed by the Grand Tourists of the eighteenth century and those less grand with Thomas Cook in the nineteenth. The range of voices gathered here is dazzling: an ancient myth from a papyrus next to Naguib Mahfouz's account of Alexandria, Florence Nightingale describing Abu Simbel side by side with Ahdaf Soueif's description of Sinai. The medieval Cairo of Ibn Jubayr walks hand in hand with the modern city of the blind Egyptian thinker, Taha Hussein. Lucie Duff Gordon sails up the Nile, Edward Lane crawls through a sand-filled temple and Alan Bennett takes tea on the terrace of the Winter Palace Hotel at Luxor."--Jacket.
Ra and his children / Roger Lancelyn Green -- The story of the Nile / Ahmad bin Tuwayr al-Janna -- The family life of the dead / Lady Evelyn Cobbold -- The downfall of the Nile / Pierre Loti -- Give me Arabic! / Robert Richardson -- An Alexandrian street / Robert Curzon -- Alexandria : the city of words / Michael Haag -- Alexandria, I am here / Naguib Mahfouz -- The evenings of Ramadan / Amitav Ghosh -- Rosatta : the home of the stone / E.M. Forster -- Mother of cities / Ibn Battuta -- A note on Misr and Cairo and some of their wonderful monuments / Ibn Jubayr -- The gossip of Cairo / Amin Mahlouf -- Going home / Taha Hussein -- An orientation / Max Rodenbeck -- The world around me / Jean Said Makdisi -- Through Cairo and to the Pyramids / H.J. Ross -- Tombs and paradise / Constance Sitwell -- Up the Nile, 1943 and 1993 / Dame Penelope Lively -- In the Fayoum : the beauty around / Lady Evelyn Cobbold -- Digging with Nefertiti / Mary Chubb --^
This morning and tomorrow / H.V. Morton -- Dearest Mutter / Lucie Duff Gordon -- Early morning in Luxor Temple / Paul William Roberts -- On the otherside with the Pharoah / Marta Bibescu -- Luxor-Aswan return, 1980 / Deborah Manley -- Egyptian villages and their inhabitants / Winifred Blackman -- The inundation / William MacQuitty -- When we will have no land-- / Sayyid Qutb -- Crawling into a temple / R.R. Madden -- Exploring the Cataracts / Sir William Armstrong -- Days and nights at Ipsamboul / Florence Nightingale -- The coming of the High Dam / William MacQuitty -- Siwa Town / Charles Dalrymple Belgrave -- The "lost" oasis, Arkenu / Ahmed Hassanein -- Red Sea to Nile / James Hanson -- Centuries of monastic life / William Dalrymple -- Through Sinai to St. Catherine's / Ahdaf Soueif -- The traveller / Robin Fedden -- The story-teller's tale / Winifred Blackman -- Seeing the sights / Anthony Sattin -- The Sitt of the Theban Palace / Sarah Searight --^
The dragoman's experiences / Mohammed Aboudi -- The tourist / Alan Bennett.