On the Nile in the Golden Age of Travel

by Andrew Humphreys

Since Antony and Cleopatra honeymooned on the Nile on a gilded barge, visitors to Egypt have taken to the river as the best way to experience the country's wonders. Early travelers took a dahabiya , an elegant triangular-sailed houseboat, and leisurely meandered from riverside site to site, for
three months or more. Then from the late nineteenth century, Thomas Cook of Leicester, England, revolutionized the journey with a fleet of specially built paddle steamers. For the next sixty years these 'floating palaces,' with their private cabins, and dining, smoking, and viewing salons,
red-uniformed dragoman guides, and organized donkey excursions, carried the aristocratic, moneyed, and adventurous of international society of the time
Using period photography, and colorful vintage posters and advertising material, this book tells the story of the people, the places, and the boats, from pioneering Nile travelers like Amelia Edwards and Lucie Duff Gordon, through to famed later passengers, such as Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan
Doyle, and, of course, Agatha Christie, whose staging of a death on the Nile only added to the allure.

Genres: History, Travel, Egypt, Nonfiction, Research

184 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2015

Reviews

[Linniegayl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filled with delightful photos and illustrations of historic travel on the Nile. This is for the most part a story of the Cook family tours on the Nile. There are some absolutely delightful excerpts from various travellers personal diaries that made this interesting. There's also a fun chapter on Agatha Christie's travels on the Nile.

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though occasionally tedious -- so many frankly-uninteresting cruise itineraries on so many differently named boats -- this book is a thorough and generally engaging history of cruising the world's longest river. Full of gorgeous, glossy images, it's part regular non-fiction and part coffee table book. Made me sad I can't afford to sail on the Sudan, the only surviving Cook steamship from the golden age...

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeously designed, longing back to a time before my time (and aren't we still such orientalists)

[Andrea Engle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lavishly illustrated, this travel history focuses on Thomas Cook, who in 1869 launched his first guided tour of Egypt via the Nile … expanded to a fleet of steamers, Cook’s share of the Nile tourist market exploded, interrupted only by war … World War II saw the end of Cook’s Egyptian business, but since the 1970’s Nile Tourism has rebounded almost to the level of its golden age …

[Carolyn Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, dreamed of steaming up the Nile on these ships, loved the contemporaneous photos.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a fun book to read. Cover to cover it took a weekend. Was fun to learn of the European history of visiting this wonderful river in Egypt.