No land on earth has been so long observed as Egypt, which was attracting travelers back in the days of Herodotus and Julius Caesar. This book includes descriptions about a myth from a papyrus next to Naguib Mahfouz's account of Alexandria, and Florence Nightingale describing Abu Simbel side by side with Ahdaf Soueif's description of Sinai
A book of cities, which describes Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut when they were windows on the world, escapes from nationality and tradition, centres of wealth, pleasure and freedom. In the same style as Mansel's }Constantinople{.
