American Travelers on the Nile

American Travelers on the Nile
Author: Andrew Oliver
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2015-01-01
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1617976326

The Treaty of Ghent signed in 1814, ending the War of 1812, allowed Americans once again to travel abroad. Medical students went to Paris, artists to Rome, academics to Göttingen, and tourists to all European capitals. More intrepid Americans ventured to Athens, to Constantinople, and even to Egypt. Beginning with two eighteenth-century travelers, this book then turns to the 25-year period after 1815 that saw young men from East Coast cities, among them graduates of Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, traveling to the lands of the Bible and of the Greek and Latin authors they had first known as teenagers. Naval officers off ships of the Mediterranean squadron visited Cairo to see the pyramids. Two groups went on business, one importing steam-powered rice and cotton mills from New York, the other exporting giraffes from the Kalahari Desert for wild animal shows in New York. Drawing on unpublished letters and diaries together with previously neglected newspaper accounts, as well as a handful of published accounts, this book offers a new look at the early American experience in Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean world. More than thirty illustrations complement the stories told by the travelers themselves.

Down the Nile

Down the Nile
Author: Rosemary Mahoney
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2007-07-11
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0316007323

Rosemary Mahoney was determined to take a solo trip down the Egyptian Nile in a small boat, even though civil unrest and vexing local traditions conspired to create obstacles every step of the way. Starting off in the south, she gained the unlikely sympathy and respect of a Muslim sailor, who provided her with both a seven-foot skiff and a window into the culturally and materially impoverished lives of rural Egyptians. Egyptian women don't row on the Nile, and tourists aren't allowed to for safety's sake. Mahoney endures extreme heat during the day, and a terror of crocodiles while alone in her boat at night. Whether she's confronting deeply held beliefs about non-Muslim women, finding connections to past chroniclers of the Nile, or coming to the dramaticm realization that fear can engender unwarranted violence, Rosemary Mahoney's informed curiosity about the world, her glorious prose, and her wit never fail to captivate.

Traveling Through Egypt

Traveling Through Egypt
Author: Deborah Manley
Publisher: American Univ in Cairo Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789774161698

A new paperback edition of a best-selling anthology.

The Nile

The Nile
Author: Toby Wilkinson
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2014-02-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1408839938

From Herodotus's day to the present political upheavals, the steady flow of the Nile has been Egypt's heartbeat. It has shaped its geography, controlled its economy and moulded its civilisation. The same stretch of water which conveyed Pharaonic battleships, Ptolemaic grain ships, Roman troop-carriers and Victorian steamers today carries modern-day tourists past bankside settlements in which rural life – fishing, farming, flooding – continues much as it has for millennia. At this most critical juncture in the country's history, foremost Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson takes us on a journey up the Nile, north from Lake Victoria, from Cataract to Cataract, past the Aswan Dam, to the delta. The country is a palimpsest, every age has left its trace: as we pass the Nilometer on the island of Elephantine which since the days of the Pharaohs has measured the height of Nile floodwaters to predict the following season's agricultural yield and set the parameters for the entire Egyptian economy, the wonders of Giza which bear the scars of assault by nineteenth-century archaeologists and the modern-day unbridled urban expansion of Cairo – and in Egypt's earliest art (prehistoric images of fish-traps carved into cliffs) and the Arab Spring (fought on the bridges of Cairo) – the Nile is our guide to understanding the past and present of this unique, chaotic, vital, conservative yet rapidly changing land.

The Nile

The Nile
Author: Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge
Publisher:
Total Pages: 452
Release: 1893
Genre: Egypt
ISBN:

On the Nile in the Golden Age of Travel

On the Nile in the Golden Age of Travel
Author: Andrew Humphreys
Publisher:
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2021-09-07
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 9781649031129

A colorfully illustrated celebration of the classic era of cruising on the Nile, new in paperback Since Antony and Cleopatra honeymooned on the Nile on a gilded barge, visitors to Egypt have taken to the river as the best way to experience the country's wonders. Early travelers took a dahabiya, an elegant triangular-sailed houseboat, and leisurely meandered from riverside site to site, for three months or more. Then from the late nineteenth century, Thomas Cook of Leicester, England, revolutionized the journey with a fleet of specially built paddle steamers. For the next sixty years these 'floating palaces,' with their private cabins, and dining, smoking, and viewing salons, red-uniformed dragoman guides, and organized donkey excursions, carried the aristocratic, moneyed, and adventurous of international society of the time. Using period photography, and colorful vintage posters and advertising material, this book tells the story of the people, the places, and the boats, from pioneering Nile travelers like Amelia Edwards and Lucie Duff Gordon, through to famed later passengers, such as Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, and, of course, Agatha Christie, whose staging of a death on the Nile only added to the allure.

Americans in Egypt, 1770-1915

Americans in Egypt, 1770-1915
Author: Cassandra Vivian
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2012-08-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786491167

The voices of Americans have long been absent from studies of modern Egypt. Most scholars assume that Americans were either not in Egypt in significant numbers during the nineteenth century or had little of importance to say. This volume shows that neither was the case by introducing and relating the experiences and attitudes of 15 American personalities who worked, lived, or traveled in Egypt from the 1770s to the commencement of World War I. Often in their own words, explorers, consuls, tourists, soldiers, missionaries, artists, scientists, and scholars offer a rare American perspective on everyday Egyptian life and provide a new perspective on many historically significant events. The stories of these individuals and their sojourns not only recount the culture and history of Egypt but also convey the domination of the country by European powers and the support for Egypt by a young American nation.

Walking the Nile

Walking the Nile
Author: Levison Wood
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Total Pages: 455
Release: 2016-01-12
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0802190685

The explorer and author of Walking the Americas and Walking the Himalayas delivers “a bold travelogue, illuminating great swathes of modern Africa” (Kirkus Reviews). Starting in November 2013 in a forest in Rwanda—where a modest spring spouts a trickle of clear, cold water—writer, photographer, and explorer Levison Wood set forth on foot, aiming to become the first person to walk the entire length of the fabled river. He followed the Nile for nine months, over 4,000 miles, through six nations—Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, the Republic of Sudan, and Egypt—to the Mediterranean coast. Like his predecessors, Wood camped in the wild, foraged for food, and trudged through rainforest, swamp, savannah, and desert, enduring life-threatening conditions at every turn. He traversed sandstorms, flash floods, minefields, and more, becoming a local celebrity in Uganda, where a popular rap song was written about him, and a potential enemy of the state in South Sudan, where he found himself caught in a civil war and detained by the secret police. As well as recounting his triumphs, like escaping a charging hippo and staving off wild crocodiles, Wood’s gripping account recalls the loss of Matthew Power, a journalist who died suddenly from heat exhaustion during their trek. As Wood walks on, often joined by local guides who help him to navigate foreign languages and customs, Walking the Nile maps out African history and contemporary life. “Woods emerges as a dutiful and brave guide.”—Los Angeles Times “Many have attempted this holy grail of an expedition—so I admire Lev’s determination and courage to pull this off.”—Bear Grylls “A brilliant book.”—Financial Times

Geology of Egypt

Geology of Egypt
Author: Bonnie M. Sampsell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2014
Genre: History
ISBN: 9774166329

Egypt is primarily a land of deserts and mountains, the habitable Nile Valley and Delta occupying less than 5 percent of the country. Although the ancient Egyptians lived on only a small fraction of the land, they made extensive use of resources from the less hospitable areas, exploiting the opportunities and adjusting to the constraints of their physical environment. This updated and expanded edition of The Geology of Egypt: A Traveler's Handbook describes these features and more, providing a guide for the visitor to Egypt interested in learning about its history from a different perspective. The author presumes no background in geology or related fields and provides an introduction to the relevant geological concepts, presenting examples to illustrate how the country's geological features influenced Egyptian civilization. Most examples are selected from the pharaonic period and Greco-Roman period, though many cases also illustrate how geological factors continue to have an impact on modern Egyptian society. The text is organized as a trip on the Nile from Lake Nasser downstream to the Delta, with chapters devoted to such popular sites as Aswan, Luxor, and Giza. Also covered are the Eastern and Western Deserts, as well as the Sinai Peninsula. Maps, illustrations, fifty color photographs, and an extensive glossary help make a complex but intriguing subject accessible to everyone.

Women Travelers in Egypt

Women Travelers in Egypt
Author: Deborah Manley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 9774164857

Women's accounts of their travels began to appear more frequently in the early 19th century, and Egypt was a popular destination. From Eliza Fay.s description of arriving in Egypt in 1779 to Rosemary Mahoney.s daring trip down the Nile in a rowboat in 2006, this lively collection presents writing by over 40 women travellers.