Chicago on the Nile relates the colorful story of the University of Chicago's Epigraphic Survey expedition to Egypt, from its conception in 1924 by the first American Egyptologist, James Henry Breasted, through its development over the course of a century to become the major scientific and social presence it is today–not just in Egypt but throughout the world. Initially envisioned as a small group of scientists devoted to documenting the ancient historical inscriptions and reliefs on the walls of the temple of Medinet Habu in Luxor, the Epigraphic Survey's work grew to encompass many of the most important sites in Egypt, including Karnak, Luxor Temple, the tomb of Kheruef, Saqqara, Abydos, and the Beit el-Wali temple in Nubia. The story places this work within the larger contexts of Egyptian and international politics, the vicissitudes of the world financial situation, and academic policies. Drawing on hundreds of letters and photos, most of them previously unpublished, the book explores why the Epigraphic Survey chose specific sites for its work, the often grand expectations for its projects and publication program, and the ultimate results. The history of Chicago House, the Survey's headquarters and residence, is described in detail and offers many amusing anecdotes of social life there over the past century. As such, Chicago on the Nile provides a who's who of Egyptologists and archaeologists who worked for and interacted with the Survey to save the endangered texts and reliefs on the ancient monuments of the Nile Valley.

Before the time of Napoleon, the most ambitious effort to explore and map the Nile was undertaken by the Ottomans, as attested by two monumental documents: an elaborate map, with 475 rubrics, and a lengthy travel account. Both were achieved at about the same time—c. 1685—and both by the same man. Evliya Çelebi’s account of his Nile journeys, in the tenth volume of his Book of Travels (Seyahatname), has been known to the scholarly world since 1938, when that volume was first published. The map, held in the Vatican Library, has been studied since at least 1949. Numerous new critical editions of both the map and the text have been published over the years, each expounding upon the last in an attempt to reach a definitive version. The Ottoman Explorations of the Nile provides a more accurate translation of the original travel account. Furthermore, the maps themselves are reproduced in greater detail and vivid color, and there are more cross-references to the text than in any previous edition. This volume gives equal weight and attention to the two parts that make up this extraordinary historical document, allowing readers to study the map or the text independently, while also using each to elucidate and accentuate the details of the other.

Presents a history of the ancient Egyptian culture, discussing the significant archeological discoveries that helped reveal this great empire.

"A supremely entertaining work, and also an important one." -David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z Upon hearing the news of tenuous peace in Sudan, foreign correspondent Dan Morrison bought a plank-board boat, summoned a friend who'd never left America, and set out from Uganda, paddling the Nile on a quest to reach Cairo-a trip that tyranny and war had made impossible for decades. With the propulsive force of a thriller, Morrison's chronicle is a mash-up of travel narrative and reportage, packed with flights into the frightful and absurd. From the hardscrabble fishing villages on Lake Victoria to the floating nightclubs of Cairo, The Black Nile tracks the snarl of commonalities and conflicts that bleed across the Nile valley, bringing to life a complex region in profound transition.

Chronicles the rise and fall of ancient Egypt, describing geographic factors in the civilization's development; each of the dynasties; and the late empire and post-empire period. Includes a chronology.

What have we learnt about the Nile since the mid-1970s, the moment when Julian Rzóska decided that the time had come to publish a comprehensive volume about the biology, and the geological and cultural history of that great river? And what changes have meanwhile occurred in the basin? The human popu- tion has more than doubled, especially in Egypt, but also in East Africa. Locally, industrial development has taken place, and the Aswan High Dam was clearly not the last major infrastructure work that was carried out. More dams have been built, and some water diversions, like the Toshka lakes, have created new expanses of water in the middle of the Sahara desert. What are the effects of all this on the ec- ogy and economy of the Basin? That is what the present book sets out to explore, 33 years after the publi- tion of “The Nile: Biology of an Ancient River”. Thirty-seven authors have taken up the challenge, and have written the “new” book. They come from 13 different countries, and 15 among them represent the largest Nilotic states (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya). Julian Rzóska died in 1984, and most of the - authors of his book have now either disappeared or retired from research. Only Jack Talling and Samir Ghabbour were still available to participate again.

Learn about the difficulties explorers of the late 1800s faced as they searched for the source of the world's longest river.

In this reissue of a book that was hailed as groundbreaking almost as soon as it was published, the authors examine the role of trade unionism and the working class in the development of Egyptian nationalism during the first half of the twentieth century. Beinin and Lockman examine "the dialectic of class and nation [and] the formation of a new class of wage workers as Egypt experienced a particular kind of capitalist development ... and these workers' adoption of various forms of consciousness, organization, and collective action in a political and economic context structured by the realities of foreign domination and the struggle for national independence." "This work breaks new ground in contemporary Western scholarship on the Middle East and challenges Orientalist assumptions that classes do not exist, or play only an insignificant role. The authors' careful and comprehensive account of the workers and their unions is obviously understanding of, and sympathetic to, the working class. Yet it is free of the rather mechanistic and reductionist analyses of earlier writings on the subject." -- Nazih Ayubi, MESA Bulletin.

Describes ancient Egyptian life on the Nile River. Includes a recipe.