A Ride in Egypt from Sioot to Luxor in 1879
With Notes on the Present State and Ancient History of the Nile Valley, and Some Account of the Various Ways of Making the Voyage out and Home

This 1879 book gives details the famous sites, but also, unusually, takes notice of the political state of Egypt.

William John Loftie (Author)

9781108082310, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 March 2018

426 pages, 37 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.8 cm, 0.57 kg

In the second half of the nineteenth century, accounts of the journey down the Nile became increasingly common. This narrative by William John Loftie (1839–1911), who wrote prolifically on travel, art, architecture and history, was published in 1879. (His A Century of Bibles is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.) Loftie spent in total about 15 months in the Nile valley over several seasons, and justifies his book by the rate of archaeological discoveries: 'books published even three years ago are already behind the times'. He gives details of his journeys to and from Egypt, and of visits to the famous sites, but, unusually, he takes notice of the current political and economic state of Egypt, and is trenchant in some of his criticisms. He also goes off the beaten tourist track, hiring donkeys to make excursions away from the river, rather than travelling only by boat.

Preface
1. On the voyage
2. The prophet on the platform
3. The fellah
4. Dervishes
5. The Boolak museum
6. The pyramids and the sphinx
7. Babylon
8. Education in Egypt
9. The journey to Sioot
10. Sioot
11. The Greek shop at Soohag
12. The donkeys
13. The ancient this
14. The table of Abood
15. The famine
16. Dendera
17. Gypt
18. Amen
19. Luxor
20. Floating down
Appendix
Index.

Subject Areas: Egyptian archaeology / Egyptology [HDDG]