Bei Archivrecherchen zur Geschichte des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo, wurde das Reisetagebuch des deutschen Ägyptologen Heinrich Schäfer (1868-1957) aus dem Jahr 1900 wiederentdeckt, in dem er die gemeinsame mit Ludwig Borchardt (1863-1938), Curt von Gruenau (1871-1939), Hermann Thiersch (1874-1939) und Georg Steindorff (1861-1951) unternommene - und immer noch - abenteuerliche Reise in den durch den Mahdi-Aufstand wenige Jahre zuvor erschütterten Sudan nach Unternubien zum Gebiet des zweiten Nilkatarakts festhält. Dabei vermitteln Schäfers Aufzeichnungen nicht nur einen Eindruck von den Hinterlassenschaften des antiken Ägypten und ihres Erhaltungszustandes um 1900, sondern schildern lebhaft die Kultur und Lebensweise der modernen Nubier. Neben den von Schäfer angefertigten Bleistiftskizzen enthält der Band zahlreiche zeitgenössische Abbildungen aus verschiedenen Archiven sowie äußerst farbenfrohe illustrierte Ansichtskarten, jenes just in Deutschland neu eingeführten Mediums. Ein einführender Überblick über die Archäologie und Kulturgeschichte des heute in den Fluten des Nasser-Stausees versunkenen Gebietes zwischen dem ersten und zweiten Nilkatarakt (zwischen Assuan und Wadi Halfa) rundet diesen reich illustrierten Band zur Forschungsgeschichte der Ägyptologie und Sudanarchäologie, sowie der Kulturgeschichte Nubiens und ihrer Erforscher ab.

Count Wilhelm von Schlieffen and his mother Countess Sophie von Schlieffen, née von Jagow, travelled through Egypt and Sudan in the years 1851–1853. In their travel journal, written by the Count and edited by the Countess, which was discovered in the State Main Archive of Schwerin a few years ago, they give account both of the archaeological sites they visited along the Nile and the flora and fauna of Kordofan, through which they travelled via camel caravan. Contrary to many researchers on Africa of their time, Count Wilhelm and Countess Sophia also describe in great detail their encounters with the many diverse people they have met in the course of their journey.

On November 6, 1823, four Englishmen disembarked in the harbour of Alexandria. In the succeeding ten months, they traveled up the Nile as far as the Second Cataract and, in the course of their travels, witnessed the turmoils of a revolution against Mohamed Ali Pasha, the viceroy of Egypt. In this volume, Henry Westcar’s journal, which was written during this journey, is edited and annotated for the first time in its entirety. Additionally, the book offers a profound overview of the reign of Mohamed Ali Pasha and particularly the treatment of ancient monuments. The topic of the famous “Westcar Papyrus”, which owes its name to the author of the journal, is discussed in an excursus. On this series: “Menschen - Reisen - Forschungen. Wissenschaftsgeschichte aus Ägypten” is a new series published by the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo. It comprises biographical works about individual researchers and travellers in Egypt, especially in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The extensive material from the archives of the Institute in Cairo is thereby made available to a growing readership with an interest in the scientific history of oriental countries. Each volume in this series is scientifically sound, extensively illustrated and written in an accessible style. Volumes on the Egyptologists Heinrich Brugsch (1827-1894), Heinrich Schäfer (1868-1957), and Ludwig Keimer (1892-1957), the architect and geodesist Georg Gustav Erbkam (1811-1876), the Africanist and botanist Georg Schweinfurth (1836-1925), the ophthalmologist, orientalist and Arabist Max Meyerhof (1874-1945) and on the history of the Deutsches Haus in Thebes (1904-1966) are in preparation.

The book provides a comprehensive survey and analysis of the art, architecture and design of the legendary Shepheard’s Hotel of Cairo. Until recently, there had been little scholarly work on the building due to the near total absence of visual material on the subject. Thanks to the recent discovery of a cache of documents, this notable gap in the study of belle époque architecture in Egypt has been filled; in addition, the book offers new perspectives on to the tradition of grand hotels and hotel architecture in general.

„Zur Kur an den Nil“ is the commented edition of a travelogue from winter 1900/01 written by the German-Jewish Ophthalmologist and Orientalist Max Meyerhof (1874-1945). It was because of health reasons that Meyerhof, together with his younger relative Otto Meyerhof (1884-1951), the later Nobel laureate in medicine, spent five months in Egypt. His travelogue gives a vivid and entertaining account of the manifold impressions during their sojourn on the banks of the Nile. Texts and illustrations from contemporary travel literature were added to widen the view and complete the richly illustrated volume. Further research concerns some places they visited, certain experiences of the two travelers, as well as encounters with well-known or unknown people. Deliberately written in a popular-scientific style the book aims to enliven documents from former times with “infotainment”, in order to reveal how events and people are linked together – back then and now.