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The Heritage of Herodotus: Travel and Travel Writing in 19th Century Britain



Author(s)

Adele H. Lewis

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DOI:10.17265/2159-550X/2015.02.001

The proliferation of travel literature brought the wider world to the doors of English homes and generated an interest in exotic cultures, ancient civilizations, and foreign wares. The number of travellers and traveller’s tales greatly increased after the end of the Napoleonic Wars and one destination that was particulary alluring was the biblical land of ancient Egypt. This paper examines British travelers to Egypt and how their published works both revealed and constructed a particular view of Egypt during the 19th century. Travel and travel literature accompanied and even facilitated the developing disciplines of archaeology and Egyptology, increasing the knowledge of and interest in the world of the Ancient Near East. This corpus of writing, often with its accompanying illustrations, also served to create a fabricated illusion of the biblical world, fashioned from both ancient and contemporary Egypt.

Herodotus, Rediscovery of Egypt, 19th century travel, British travel writers, development of Egyptology