Egypt

The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems

R. B. Parkinson

Parkinson's translations bring the literature of Egypt's Middle Kingdom to life for a modern reader, anchored by The Tale of Sinuhe, widely regarded as the masterpiece of ancient Egyptian poetry. It follows a courtier's adventures after he flees the country, a story still read for its craft nearly four thousand years later.

Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt

Geraldine Pinch

Pinch, an Egyptologist at Oxford's Oriental Institute, offers a clear guide to the gods, goddesses, and religious traditions of ancient Egypt. It is a useful companion for making sense of the imagery found throughout the country's temples and tombs.

How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself

Mark Collier and Bill Manley

Hieroglyphs appear throughout nearly every stop on an Egypt itinerary, and this step by step guide, illustrated by Richard Parkinson, teaches readers to decipher the script and connect it to the imagery that surrounds it. It turns temple and tomb walls from decoration into text that can actually be read.

Daughter of Egypt

Marie Benedict

This work of historical fiction follows two ambitious women separated by centuries, Lady Evelyn Herbert, daughter of the man who discovered Tutankhamun's tomb, and Hatshepsut, Egypt's long forgotten female pharaoh. Both were compelled to conceal who they truly were, yet each ultimately altered the course of history.

Women Travelers on the Nile

Deborah Manley

Manley gathers the writings of women who traveled Egypt in the nineteenth century, among them Amelia Edwards, Florence Nightingale, and Lucie Duff Gordon, whose access to the harems of Cairo and the women along the Nile revealed a side of the country their male counterparts rarely saw. The result is a lively and varied collection of firsthand accounts.

Death on the Nile

Agatha Christie

First published in 1937, this classic of detective fiction follows Hercule Poirot aboard a Nile steamer as he uncovers the truth behind the murder of the socialite Linnet Doyle. It remains one of the most enduring novels ever set on the river.

Palace Walk

Naguib Mahfouz

Set in Cairo near the end of the First World War, as the country began pressing for independence from Britain, the Nobel laureate's epic traces the fractures that emerge within one Muslim family under the weight of that moment. It is widely considered his masterwork.

The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit

Lucette Lagnado

Lagnado tells the story of her father, a successful Egyptian Jewish businessman who once made his deals at Shepherd's Hotel and the Nile Hilton's darkened bar. After the fall of King Farouk and the rise of the Nasser government, he lost everything, and the family fled into decades of hardship across whatever countries would take them.

The City Always Wins

Omar Robert Hamilton

Set against the 2011 uprising in Cairo's Tahrir Square, this novel follows an activist and a journalist whose commitment to each other and to the revolution is tested as the regime falls and the country splinters into competing ideologies. It is a novel written from inside the moment rather than about it.

Revolution for Dummies

Bassem Youssef

The political satirist Youssef takes aim at the hypocrisy and instability that has long defined Egyptian politics, from the government's attempts to cover up violence in Tahrir Square to a claimed cure for AIDS and a rumor that Youssef himself worked for the CIA. It is a sharp and genuinely funny read on a serious subject.

Walking the Nile

Levison Wood

In November 2013, Wood set out on foot from a modest spring in Rwanda to become the first person to walk the entire length of the Nile. Over nine months and more than four thousand miles, across six countries including Egypt, his account traces the river from its source to the Mediterranean coast.

Sahara: A Natural History

Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle

De Villiers and Hirtle trace the full story of the desert, its geology, its plant and animal life, and the people who have called it home. It is a valuable primer for anyone planning time in the desert beyond the Nile Valley itself.