Reading Recommendations when travelling up the Nile

I am often asked for reading recommendations for first-time travellers to Egypt. Naturally, my mind immediately turns to local governmental travel advice… but of course, what people really want to know is “what should I read when travelling in Egypt?” So, here are just some of the books I’ve taken with me, in no particular order.

Of course, I will begin with the book that started everything at the Egypt Exploration Society, A Thousand Miles Up the Nile by Amelia B Edwards. The 2022 EES reprint is a stunning volume including Amelia’s original watercolours. However, it is a pretty weighty tome and perhaps not the most sensible for long-distance travel – unless you’re happy with e-readers, of course! A lighter option might be Ancient Egypt in 50 Discoveries, which provides a helpful introduction to Pharaonic Egypt through the lens of 50 EES discoveries (artefacts, places, people, etc.), some of which you may see on your journey.

For those wanting an overview, then I find The Story of Egypt by Joann Fletcher invaluable. Though chronologically arranged, it does not stick to the ‘great man’ narrative and introduces some of the lesser-known (but often more fascinating) characters from ancient Egypt. It’s portable but packed with absorbing anecdotes you might not find in other books. As the EES Lead Local Ambassador, Prof Fletcher’s book is also a brilliant introduction to the Society’s contributions to our understanding of Egypt.

We often find ourselves drawn to particular periods of Egyptian history, such as the ‘pyramid age’ or the Amarna Period. However, often overlooked is the Graeco-Roman Period, despite many of the sites that we visit in Egypt dating to this later phase of Pharaonic Egypt. Toby Wilkinson's The Last Dynasty is one of the best introductions to this tumultuous period – a veritable soap opera! The volume includes family trees and maps to help navigate this complex dynasty and where you might be visiting during your trip.  

Sometimes we’d like to imagine what it was like for other travellers in Egypt. For that, I’d recommend many volumes by Anthony Sattin, particularly A Winter on the Nile. Incredibly readable and easy to carry along to local coffee shops or get a few pages in on the coach journeys between sites, it offers a glimpse into early European travel in Egypt.  

Sometimes I fancy something a little more narrative, and for that I always return to Nefertiti Lived Here by Mary Chubb. It is a gem focusing on the work of the Egypt Exploration Society at Amarna in the 1930s. As well as giving an engaging account of life on an archaeological project, it also weaves together the history of the city founded by Akhenaten and some of the artefacts discovered there and now found in museums around the world.  

Where would we be without guidebooks? Sometimes we need a volume that literally holds our hand as we explore our surroundings and very few can better Islamic Monuments in Cairo: The Practical Guide by Caroline Willliams. Her volume offers a variety of walking routes around the Medieval city, down major thoroughfares and lesser-known neighbourhoods. Each major monument is given an entry, while the whole is tied together by introductory chapters and maps outlining the history of Egypt’s greatest metropolis.

It is impossible to list all the books I would recommend to you for travelling around Egypt, but the above offer a variety of genres that you might choose to travel with that would enrich your experience. Perhaps to inspire your next journey, you might pick up a copy of The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Bettany Hughes, which invites us to consider what ‘to wonder’ actually means through an exploration of ancient tales. But, if Egypt really is your obsession (like me!) then you might want to absorb your surroundings by reading The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz (1988, Nobel Prize for Literature) and start to see Egypt through a different lens.

Whatever you decide – enjoy your trip. If you’re like me, then I am sure you’ll come back with more books than you took…