Monatsarchive: Juli 2017

New Egypt – Amedee Baillot de Guerville

De Guerville, the author of “New Egypt,” is able to break through the hedges that surround the divinely-appointed affairs of many foreign places. In his own words he obtained his intormation about the new Egypt from “ highly placed personages in the Egyptian world, English, French, natives, and others; these men, keen and talented, who in palaces, ministries, legations, schools, hospitals, bands, or large industrial concerns, are working without ceasing for the regeneration of Egypt.” Not for a long time has there been a book of travel that is so very interesting and refreshingly instructive. The author took the trip from Alexandria to Cairo, thence to Luxor, Karnac, Assouan, Khartoum, and Fashoda – … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

A Ride in Egypt – William John Loftie

Mr. Loftie’s very pleasant book relates, strictly speaking, to an excursion from Sioot to Luxor, undertaken by the author and three friends in 1879, but it includes as well some entertaining notes en route from England to the East, and a number of instructive chapters on Cairo and its environs. The “Ride” proper, which was taken mostly on donkey-back, conducted the party a little aside from the hackneyed track, and to some of the less well known points of archaeological interest, notably to the ruins of This, or Thinis, claimed by modern Egyptologists as the cradle of ancient monarchy. Nothing fresher or more entertaining on the subject of Egypt has appeared for … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Modern Sons of the Pharaohs – Simon Henry Leeder

This interesting study of the Copts deserves attention. The Copts are the descendants of the ancient Egyptians, though many of them show a strain of Syrian or Jewish blood, and the Coptic church preserves in a somewhat debased form the primitive Christianity of the fourth century when it parted from Rome and Constantinople. Through the ages the Copts have preserved their faith and their customs; they form about a tenth of the population of Egypt and play a leading part in commerce. This study of the manners and customs of the Copts is notable for its comprehensive and scholarly handling of the subject, for grace of style and rich, descriptive backgrounds.… Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Land of the Pharaohs – Samuel Manning

Dr. Manning has written freshly of scenes and places which are much ‘done’ by tourists; and now and then, when he is a little more beyond the ordinary track, he is really powerful. He has served a good apprenticeship to work of this kind, and it may be said of him that, while he never sacrifices dignity in retailing the trifling gossip of the journey, he does occasionally cast a very interesting glance into the social conditions of those amongst whom he moves; and sometimes he throws a gleam of humour around the strange, or squalid, or repellent things that he meets. The anecdote of the Arab, the opera-glass, and the two … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Letters From Egypt, 1863 – 1865 – Lucie Duff Gordon

From travellers whose course of wild adventure and whose manifold and uncommon gifts put a pressure upon the reader in following them, similar to that felt by them in exploring, it is very delightful to turn to so small and readable, but fresh and pleasant a volume, as Lady Duff Gordon’s. The scenes she visits and describes are supposed to be well known, but assuredly she has the merit of investing them with all interest very new, arising, principally, from her watchfulness over all human ways, and her own interest in every aspect of human life. The letters are written in a singularly captivating and vigorous English style. They possess … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Egypt: Historical, Descriptive and Picturesque – Georg Ebers

Wherein lies the mysterious attraction which is peculiar to the land of the Pharaohs? Why is it that its name, its history, its natural peculiarities, and its monuments, affect and interest us in a quite different manner from those of the other nations of antiquity? Not only the learned and cultivated among the inhabitants of the Western world, but every one, high and low, has heard of Egypt and its primeval wonders. The child knows the names of the good and the wicked Pharaoh before it has learnt those of the princes of its own country; and before it has learnt the name of the river that passes through its native town … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Egypt: Ancient Sites and Modern Scenes – Gaston Maspero

In this volume Professor Maspero gives us a collection of charming word pictures of Egypt, in which history and archeology are made to blend with scenes of today, and the past is linked to the present. No living Egyptologist has such a command of facts as Professor Maspero, and no other writer on the land of the Pharaohs has such brilliant literary gifts and so picturesque a style. The book deals with the aspect of Egypt as it has presented itself to the author on his yearly voyages up and down the Nile to inspect the monuments in his official capacity as director of the Service des Antiquites. .

Egypt: Ancient