Manley, Deborah and Sahar Abdel-Hakim (eds), Traveling Through Egypt from 450 BC to the Twentieth Century, The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo and New York, 2004
Reeves, Nicholas, Ancient Egypt: The Great Discoveries, Thames & Hudson, London, 2000
Sattin, Anthony, The Pharaoh’s Shadow: Travels in Ancient and Modern Egypt, Victor Gollancz, London, 2000
INDIVIDUAL SITES
Gurob Harem Palace Project (www.gurob.org.uk)
Kemp, Barry, The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and Its People, Thames & Hudson, London, 2012
O’Connor, David, Abydos: Egypt’s First Pharaohs and the Cult of Osiris, Thames & Hudson, London, 2009
Reeves, Nicholas, and Richard Wilkinson, The Complete Valley of the Kings: Tombs and Treasures of Egypt’s Greatest Pharaohs, Thames & Hudson, London, 1996
Soueif, Ahdaf, Cairo: My City, Our Revolution, Bloomsbury, London, 2012
Wendrich, Willeke, “Egypt’s earliest granaries: evidence from the Fayum,” Egyptian Archaeology 27 (2005), pp. 12–15
Acknowledgements
My list of thank-yous is short, but no less sincere: to my fellow travellers on the Nile, before and after the Arab Spring, for their company and curiosity; to the crew and staff of the dahabiya Afandina, for their friendly and attentive service; to Medhat Saad, doyen of guides and irrepressible commentator on Egyptian politics, ancient and modern; to Dr. Ben Outhwaite, Head of the Genizah Research Unit, Cambridge University Library, for information about the Cairo genizah collection; to my agent and editors, for their invaluable support and expert judgement; to Michael Bailey, as always; and, last but by no means least, to the people of Egypt, for their exceptional hospitality, their good humour in the face of adversity and their resilience. May their hopes and dreams for a better future be fulfilled.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Toby Wilkinson is a Fellow of Clare College at the University of Cambridge. An acknowledged expert on ancient Egyptian civilization, he has lectured around the world and is a contributor to major international collaborative projects. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Egyptian History and broadcasts regularly on radio and television. He is the author of seven previous books, including the Hessell-Tiltman Prize–winning The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt (2010).
Hapy, god of the Nile flood, whose corpulence symbolised the river’s bounty (reign of Amenhotep III, c. 1360 BC)
The Nile at Aswan: here the journey downriver begins
The rayyis guides our Nile boat safely downriver
Market day, Abu Shusha, Upper Egypt
A mud-brick farmstead on the banks of the Nile, Upper Egypt
Fishing boat and felucca on the Nile at sunset
The desert meets the river at Aswan
The temple of Abu Simbel which was moved to preserve it when the Aswan High Dam was built in the 1960s
“The most beautiful spot on the Nile”: the temples of Philae, moved to save them from the flooding caused by the Aswan dams
Fellahin, Upper Egypt
Small boats, children and donkeys: village life unchanged for millennia at Elkab, Upper Egypt
The Winter Palace, Luxor: an elegant stopover on the journey downriver
Sunset over the Nile at Luxor
Pharonic temple, Christian basilica and mosque: religion reinvented at Luxor Temple
Karnak Temple: reflections in the sacred lake, fed by the waters of the Nile
The hills of Western Thebes, the greatest treasure-house of antiquity
“Holy of holies”: the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri, Western Thebes
“Ozymandias”: the fallen colossus of Ramesses II at the Ramesseum, Western Thebes
Queen Tiye, wife of King Amenhotep III (c. 1390–1353 BC)
The Colossi of Memnon, Western Thebes
Mons Claudianus, a Roman quarry in the desert
The painted ceiling of the temple of Hathor at Dendera
The green fields of Middle Egypt, near Abydos
Coptic papyrus from Nag Hammadi: the “Gnostic gospels” rewrite the early history of Christianity
Osiris and Isis: beautiful painted reliefs in the temple of Seti I at Abydos
Stela of the royal family from Amarna. Akhenaten and Nefertiti promoted themselves and their daughters as Egypt’s new holy family.
Fayum portrait: a blend of Greek, Roman and Egyptian cultures
The solar boat of Khufu at Giza, originally buried next to the king’s Great Pyramid to transport him into the afterlife
Silhouetted skyline of Islamic Cairo
The Ben Ezra synagogue, Old Cairo
Monastery of St. George, Old Cairo
Looking towards an uncertain future: (above) the Great Sphinx and (below) the Ramses Hilton, the 6 October Bridge and modern urban sprawl, Cairo
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