Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea, and the Holy Land

This 1838 edition traces a journey through Egypt and the Near East by John Lloyd Stephens, founder of Mesoamerican archaeology.

John Lloyd Stephens (Author)

9781108079242, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 March 2015

334 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.43 kg

The American writer and diplomat John Lloyd Stephens (1805–52) was effectively the founder of Mesoamerican archaeology, through his rediscovery of the Mayan civilization (his two-volume Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan is also reissued in this series). But before that, having qualified and practised as a lawyer in New York, he went on a two-year journey through Egypt and the Near East, publishing an account of his experiences in 1837 (under the name of George Stephens): this reissue is of the expanded 1838 edition. The work was extremely popular, possibly because, as he states in the preface, Stephens writes 'without perplexing himself with any deep speculations upon the rise and fall of empires', nor does he give much archaeological detail. Volume 1 begins with Stephens' arrival at Alexandria in Egypt, and his journey down the Nile to the Cataracts; it ends with a visit to St Catherine's monastery in Sinai.

Preface
Preface to new edition
1. Alexandria
2. From Alexandria to Cairo
3. The slave-market at Cairo
4. Journey up the Nile
5. Sporting on the Nile
6. Small favours thankfully received
7. The temple of Dendera
8. The rock of the chain
9. Ascent of the cataracts
10. Thebes, its temples and great ruins
11. The Arabs and the pacha
12. A travelling artist and antiquary
13. A good word for the Arabs
14. The caravan
15. The aspect of the mountains
16. Ascent of Sinai
17. Diet of the monks.

Subject Areas: Archaeology by period / region [HDD]