Product details
- ISBN 9780755656066
- Weight: 400g
- Dimensions: 148 x 220mm
- Publication Date: 26 Jun 2025
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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British Consul with a long-standing interest in archaeology Thomas Sandwith’s account of his two months travelling in Egypt provides a valuable new primary source on a dynamic period in Egyptian history. In January 1893 he began a diary in which he recorded his journey on the Nile aboard a dahabiya. Possessing a keen interest in antiquities and experience in acquiring them during his consular career, he recounts visiting newly discovered archaeological sites and meetings with Egyptologists, providing a unique snapshot of the ‘golden age’ of Egyptology. His astute descriptions of his journey from Cairo to Aswan and back give a vivid new perspective on the growth of European tourism in British-occupied Egypt and early Egyptian industry.
Sandwith’s decades-long interest in archaeology and familiarity with the Levant mean this diary – until now on the long-hand pages as he wrote them on the boat – is thus unique among contemporary travel accounts. It is a valuable primary source for scholars interested in the history of the British in the Middle East, the history of travel in the Middle East and the history of archaeology and Egyptology.
Thomas Backhouse Sandwith was a British diplomat who served in the Levant, as a Vice Consul in Syria and in Cyprus, then as Consul in Crete and Tunisia and Consul General in modern-day Ukraine. He developed a great interest in archaeology, acquiring antiquities for museums, collectors and himself.
Stephen Boys Smith is the author of Thomas Sandwith: A British Consul in the Levant, 1855-1891, (2020) and co-editor of Studies on Ottoman Nicosia (2019). He was formerly a senior British civil servant.
