Ancient Egypt and the Travel Literature

The mystique land of River Nile is a rich source of study for the connoisseur art and literature. It is located in the northeastern side of Africa bordering the Mediterranean and Red seas. Widely known for its temples, hieroglyphs and mummies it has the honor of possessing two wonders of the world, the pyramids at Giza and the lighthouse at Alexandria.

Topographically Egypt experiences abundant sunshine, adequate water supply and is well- protected by natural barriers from enemies. It has desert to its west, seas to the north and east and the Nile’s rapids to its south that act like protective shields against enemies.

The Egyptian civilization is one of the oldest civilizations of the world. It existed along the river Nile for around 3,000 years, that is, from 3300 B.C. to 30 B.C. The Egyptians have been saved from continuous attacks and political crisis. This helped them to generate a creative and sophisticated society.

Literature is one of the most important aspects when a civilization is under study. Literature of a particular period vividly delineates the life and time of that period. A literary work whether it is fictional or non-fictional has something to correspond to its readers. The ancient Egyptians developed their literature considerably and produced a vast body of written records, treatises dealing with ethical and moralistic issues, epic stories, evocative love poems, ribald tales and religious and magical scrolls.

Travel is an important theme of all literary works. It can be the depiction of a real journey or a metaphorical one. In the European tradition, there is the archetypal myth of Ulysses who sails beyond the known world even farther from the pillar of Hercules, or the journey of Dante through Hell to Mount Purgatory into the extraterrestrial realms of Paradise. Therefore, many a times writers depicting real travels are influenced by these fictional writings and it gets hard to discern the demarcation between fact and fiction. Their writing is a replica of their perception, which in turn is influenced by cultural and personal factors.

A writer, writing about a foreign travel sometimes had to take the help of fictional and banal in order to explain a new thing that he has not come across to be comprehensible to his readers.

It is hard to clearly point out the origin of travel writing but one particular writing that dates back to Middle Kingdom (2022-1850 B.C.) is supposed to facilitate the phenomenon of travel writing. The story titled as ‘The Sailor and the Wonder Island’, narrates the story of an Egyptian sailor who suffers a shipwreck and loses his other companions in the course of his journey. He has to live on an unknown island, where he finds a treasure and returns home. Quite mysteriously, the island sinks after he leaves it behind.

Travel writing is different from other forms of writing in many ways. It resembles translation, where the writer writes for a comparatively known and selective audience. Travel writing or more precisely a travelogue, is written by somebody who does not belong to the culture or the soil. It is the perception of a non-native, how he or she understands the tradition and customs of the place. It is based on the binary opposition between home and foreign land. In some implicit ways, it brings a comparative analysis between the culture the writer belongs to and the other regarding which he or she is writing.

Travelogues are also influenced by fictional writings and it gets hard to discern the demarcation between fact and fiction. Their writing is a replica of their perception, which in turn is influenced by cultural and personal factors.

A writer, writing about a foreign travel sometimes has to take the help of fictional and banal in order to explain a new thing that he has not come across.

The genre of travel writing evolved gradually out of the necessity to provide essential information of other cultures for diplomatic and political purposes. The account of Marco Polo’s travel across Asia is one of the first examples of travel writing.

Other early works of travel writing include the work of Ibn Battuta, an Arabian writer, an account of his travels across Asia and Africa; The Golden Age of Alexandria by John Marlowe traces the figurative journey of Alexandria from its inception in 331 B.C by Alexander the Great to its final capture by Arabs in 642 A.D. Others in the line are Wilhelm Spielberg’s The Credibility of Herodotus, which is an account of Egypt in the light of Egyptian Monuments and Linant de Bellefonds’ Account of the Journey into the oasis of Upper Egypt. Linant, a French draughtsman came to Egypt and lived rest of his life working and traveling in that locale.

There are a number of writers who found Egypt richly endowed with materials that needed to be explored and rediscovered. Gustave Flaubert the famous French writer gave a lively account of Egypt, of his voyage to the place. Basing his writing on Flaubert’s travel notes, diaries and letters Francis Steegmuler added the bizarre elements into it and made his writing more realistic and true to life. Sophia Poole’s book The Englishwoman in Egypt digs deep inside the culture and customs of Egyptian women. She adroitly depicts the “Oriental” life in multifarious colors ranging from beautiful slaves, fairy tale meals, splendid costumes and mounds of jewels.

Thus, these foreign writers had their own perception through which they viewed the culture, tradition and life of people in Egypt. They were enamored by the pyramids; mesmerized by the Oriental life style; and mystified by the gods in the temples and that is often reflected in their writings.