Notes during a Visit to Egypt, Nubia, the Oasis, Mount Sinai, and Jerusalem

In 1820, the English traveller Sir Frederick Henniker (1793-1825) set out for Egypt, which he would explore for nearly three years. He sailed up the Nile, calling it ‘the least romantic, but most useful of rivers’, stopping off at many places along the way. His adventures were varied: he was the first known person to climb to the apex of the Pyramid of Khafre at Giza, and he acquired a second-century coffin that is now in the British Museum. He claimed to have met Egypt’s khedive, Muhammad Ali Pasha, with whom he discussed English horses and military campaigns. Heading next to Mount Sinai and Jerusalem, he was brutally attacked by bandits on the road to Jericho, leaving him injured and naked. He recovered and continued his journey through the Middle East and back to England, where he published this lively and often amusing account of his adventures in 1823.