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Grand Hotels of Egypt: In the Golden Age of Travel
From the earliest resthouses serving travelers on the Overland Route between Britain and Bombay to the grand Edwardian palaces on the Nile that made Egypt the exotic alternative to wintering on the Riviera, the hotels of Alexandria, Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan were always about far more than just bed and board. As bridgeheads for African exploration, neutral territories for conducting diplomacy, headquarters for armies, providers of home comforts for writers, painters, scholars, and archaeologists in the field, and social hubs for an international elite, more of importance happened in Egypt’s hotels than in any other setting. It was through the hotels that visitors from the west―the earliest adventurers, then the travelers and, finally, the tourists―experienced the Orient. This book tells the stories of Egypt’s historic hotels (including the Cecil, Shepheard’s, the Mena House, Gezira Palace, Semiramis, Winter Palace, and Cataract) and some of the people who stayed in them, from Amelia Edwards, Lucie Duff Gordon and Florence Nightingale to Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle, Winston Churchill, and TE Lawrence.
215 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 1, 2016
This books was fantastic. It provides a fun, yet thoroughly informative look at travel in Egypt between the mid 1800s and early 1900s.
I read it front to back, primarily using it for research purposes, but can honestly say reading it for fun would have left me just as satisfied. The author includes everything in his descriptions of the major Grand Hotels: photos, illustrations, historical facts, tales of the famous and infamous guests, detailed descriptions of architecture, and much more.
I definitely recommend it for lovers of travel, Egypt, or history in general.
I read it front to back, primarily using it for research purposes, but can honestly say reading it for fun would have left me just as satisfied. The author includes everything in his descriptions of the major Grand Hotels: photos, illustrations, historical facts, tales of the famous and infamous guests, detailed descriptions of architecture, and much more.
I definitely recommend it for lovers of travel, Egypt, or history in general.
September 28, 2019
A fascination with Egypt for me has mostly been centered on the grand hotels and traveling up (or down) the Nile. The pyramids, tombs, and mummies were just a bonus. You could say that it was the lure of travel in Egypt that appealed to me, fed no doubt from reading Agatha Christie and Elizabeth Peters and others who wrote mysteries and romances set there, especially historical ones set in the 18th Century. Setting off down the Nile with steamer trunks and a parasol, stopping to stay in elegant hotels like Cairo's Shepheard's, Luxor's The Winter Palace, and Aswan's Cataract, day jaunts to see desert, pyramids and tombs, were to me the ultimate in the exotic and the most desired of experiences. I did eventually get to Egypt at the end of the 20th Century; I even stayed in one of the (still) greatest of those grand hotels. Is it any wonder that when I saw this coffee table book on sale in a chain bookstore I had to buy it?
It is richly illustrated with vintage photographs and drawings. The organization is perfect - following that of the golden age traveler who first arrives in Egypt in Alexandria, then travels through Lower Egypt to Upper Egypt, or from Cairo to Damascus and on to India. There is just enough history to balance the anecdotes and architectural and ownership details to allow you to appreciate even further the important role these hotels played before the era of the airplane made travel common place rather than grand and daring.
You learn about Napoleon's visit, how the palace he arrived at on July 25, 1798 eventually became the most famous of Egypt's grand hotels, Shepheard's , whose reign as such only ended when it was burned to the ground during the riots on Black Saturday, January 26, 1952, the day the revolution threw the British out. In the pages of this book I met Agatha Miller, a young frivolous debutante uninterested in pyramids or tombs, who was brought to Cairo by her mother to find a husband, as a season in London was too costly. We meet Agatha again many years later with her second husband, only now she's known world wide as Agatha Christie. Many great writers pass through and quotes from their letters and books about their visits are liberally included. I'm very tempted to see if I can find Pierre Loti's ascerbic writings (confession I already own others by Lawrence Durrell, Mark Twain, and Gustav Flaubert). These hotels served critical functions as hospitals or military headquarters during WWI and WWII. Many of them featured in familiar films like Death on the Nile.
I am most interested after reading this book to stay in Cairo's Windsor Hotel, which as of the date of the book (2011) still has much of its original detail and features, including a vintage manually operated Schindler elevator that's a tiny glass box running up center of the winding staircase. Seems Cairo is the home of old elevators kept working with a passion close to obsession, and this elevator, dating from about 1893, is reputedly the oldest. Michael Palin stayed at the Windsor at his stop in Cairo for his series Around the World in 80 Days.
A special chapter at the end taught me all about vintage luggage stickers, images of which enliven the book's text, and how they were used by porters to distinguish which hotels a traveler's steamer trunks and other luggage were to be delivered. The artwork on these is absolutely stunning, capturing the exoticism of the local of each hotel perfectly. There is also a lengthy bibliography which lists many fictional works and memoirs referenced in the text. My TBR has expanded exponentially.
Read in short bursts, between other reading, I was richly rewarded by my impulse buy.
It is richly illustrated with vintage photographs and drawings. The organization is perfect - following that of the golden age traveler who first arrives in Egypt in Alexandria, then travels through Lower Egypt to Upper Egypt, or from Cairo to Damascus and on to India. There is just enough history to balance the anecdotes and architectural and ownership details to allow you to appreciate even further the important role these hotels played before the era of the airplane made travel common place rather than grand and daring.
You learn about Napoleon's visit, how the palace he arrived at on July 25, 1798 eventually became the most famous of Egypt's grand hotels, Shepheard's , whose reign as such only ended when it was burned to the ground during the riots on Black Saturday, January 26, 1952, the day the revolution threw the British out. In the pages of this book I met Agatha Miller, a young frivolous debutante uninterested in pyramids or tombs, who was brought to Cairo by her mother to find a husband, as a season in London was too costly. We meet Agatha again many years later with her second husband, only now she's known world wide as Agatha Christie. Many great writers pass through and quotes from their letters and books about their visits are liberally included. I'm very tempted to see if I can find Pierre Loti's ascerbic writings (confession I already own others by Lawrence Durrell, Mark Twain, and Gustav Flaubert). These hotels served critical functions as hospitals or military headquarters during WWI and WWII. Many of them featured in familiar films like Death on the Nile.
I am most interested after reading this book to stay in Cairo's Windsor Hotel, which as of the date of the book (2011) still has much of its original detail and features, including a vintage manually operated Schindler elevator that's a tiny glass box running up center of the winding staircase. Seems Cairo is the home of old elevators kept working with a passion close to obsession, and this elevator, dating from about 1893, is reputedly the oldest. Michael Palin stayed at the Windsor at his stop in Cairo for his series Around the World in 80 Days.
A special chapter at the end taught me all about vintage luggage stickers, images of which enliven the book's text, and how they were used by porters to distinguish which hotels a traveler's steamer trunks and other luggage were to be delivered. The artwork on these is absolutely stunning, capturing the exoticism of the local of each hotel perfectly. There is also a lengthy bibliography which lists many fictional works and memoirs referenced in the text. My TBR has expanded exponentially.
Read in short bursts, between other reading, I was richly rewarded by my impulse buy.
February 24, 2020
While it's easy to find books on ancient Egypt, it's difficult to find a modern take on the rise of the West's fascination with Egypt-ancient and modern. Fortunately, this beautifully illustrated and informative book complete with historical photographs and drawings, offers a unique insight into the age of travel in Egypt during the 19th and 20th centuries. Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo became the place to be for wealthy Americans and Europeans in the 1930's, bringing about a sharp increase in tourism, with help from the famous archeological discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb in Upper Egypt.
E. M. Forester, Agatha Christie, Mark Twain, TE Lawrence, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charlie Chaplain, William Faulkner and many writers, actors and artists stayed at these famous hotels from Luxor to Alexandria.
The book details the fascinating conversion of the Mena House, near the Pyramids of Giza, from a modest pair of hunting lodges originally owned by the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, into a private resident and eventually a luxurious hotel. Likewise, the Gezira Palace in Cairo was originally built for Empress Eugenie, Napoleon III's wife, but went on to become another sanctuary of luxury accommodation with a menagerie, and beautiful gardens evolving into a hotel in the 1890's.
Visiting the Mena House and the Cairo Marriott (which was the Gezira Palace)-both still in operation-brings this fascinating history into the present. I'm amazed at the extensive research Andrew Humphreys has done in this fascinating history. Highly recommended for anyone interested in a modern take on Egypt.
E. M. Forester, Agatha Christie, Mark Twain, TE Lawrence, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charlie Chaplain, William Faulkner and many writers, actors and artists stayed at these famous hotels from Luxor to Alexandria.
The book details the fascinating conversion of the Mena House, near the Pyramids of Giza, from a modest pair of hunting lodges originally owned by the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, into a private resident and eventually a luxurious hotel. Likewise, the Gezira Palace in Cairo was originally built for Empress Eugenie, Napoleon III's wife, but went on to become another sanctuary of luxury accommodation with a menagerie, and beautiful gardens evolving into a hotel in the 1890's.
Visiting the Mena House and the Cairo Marriott (which was the Gezira Palace)-both still in operation-brings this fascinating history into the present. I'm amazed at the extensive research Andrew Humphreys has done in this fascinating history. Highly recommended for anyone interested in a modern take on Egypt.
June 19, 2017
I love being transported back in time with words and sketches and actual photographs. As the title implies, the grand hotels are/were exotic and extravagant places. The book documents life in that golden age when travelers climbed the great pyramids and dined in pyramid chambers with mummies. My head it full of wonder about "the golden age of travel."
July 2, 2022
Who'd have thought I'd be rating a non-fiction book 5 stars! I got hold of this book for research purposes, and ended up reading it for fun. So many anecdotes about Egypt in the 19th and early 20th centuries, not to mention the cartoons and fascinating photographs. A real time travelling experience.
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April 24, 2021Would like to buy it.
May 16, 2022
I got this book for research purposes and ended up reading it for enjoyment. What a wonderful romp through history.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews