Reading list | Egypt

The Egyptians were the great traders of the Eastern Mediterranean and their ships evidently knew the coast well, as can be seen in the wreck of the 14th-century BC ship, Uluburun, in the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology. Egypt lives by the waters of the Nile and its delta is its window on the world. The great lighthouse at Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, stood until 1487 when it was replaced by the Citadel of Qaitbay, named after a 15th century Mamluke sultan, and today a tourist attraction. Spices from the east were traded through Egypt, and Cairo's bazaar is a match for Istanbul's, to which it lent the name Mısır Çarşısı – Egyptian bazaar. The country was in Ottoman hands from 1517 until 1867 and there are still Ottoman houses to be seen, especially on the coast. 

Evliya Çelebi’s annotated Nile map, held in the Vatican Library, and text from his pioneering journeys in 1672 from Volume 10 of The Book of Travels (Seyahatname)  was published in 2018 under the title Ottoman Explorations of the Nile.