"Traveling Through the Deserts of Egypt” is a collection of travel writings from 450 B.C. to the twentieth century that celebrate the deserts of Egypt namely the Western Desert, the Eastern Desert (which divide the Red Sea from the Nile) and the desert of the Sinai Peninsula.

To this day, the desert fascinates. It has a timeless quality that lures people to its empty and waterless lands. Over the centuries, many people have crossed the deserts of Egypt — men and women with different backgrounds and purposes, pilgrims, traders, tourists, explorers and scientists. The beauty of this travelogue lies in the sheer number of writers who describe in detail their journey across these deserts.

“The differences in these travelers’ itineraries, destinations, objectives, and interests are largely responsible for the diversity of perceptions of the deserts that their texts reveal. The meaning of the desert changes from one text to another,” state the authors.

This superb selection takes us into the heart of bygone times, where we rediscover an era of desert travel, which came to an end when the car replaced the majestic camel: The “ship of the desert.”

The oldest text is written by the Greek Herodotus who recalls how in 525 B.C. the Persian leader Cambyses, commanding an army of 40,000 men, set forth from El Kharga Oasis to Siwa. “And, as they were at their midday meal, a wind arose from the South, strong and deadly, bringing with it a column of swirling wind, which entirely covered up the troops, and caused them wholly to disappear,” writes Herodotus.

The whereabouts of Cambyses’ ill-fated army remains one of the world’s great mysteries. This ancient tragedy will continue to fascinate until someone finally discovers the truth.

One of the most interesting chapters deals with the preparations of the journey. The excerpts, dating from 1183 to 1942, recreate the unique and picturesque atmosphere of camelback travel, which lasted from the dawn of history until the 1920’s when Jeeps and Landrovers forever changed the nature of desert travel.

Ibn Jubayr, one of the best-known Arab travelers and famous for his diary, “The Travels of Ibn Jubayr,” gives us some interesting information on the best and most comfortable camel litters which enable the traveler and his companion to sit at ease under a canopy in counterpoise and protected from the burning heat.

“With his companion, he may partake of what he needs of food and the like, or read, when he wishes, the Koran or a book; and those, whom deem it lawful to play chess, may, if he wish, play with his companion, for the diversion and to relieve the spirit,” writes Ibn Jubayr.

Seven centuries later, the British John Burgon, shares similar feelings about the pleasures of camel riding: “I like camel riding immensely, and could go on camelback to the world’s end. It is a hundred times pleasanter than a horse or donkey… I can write and read, and do all, but draw the creature’s back.”

However, Harriet Martineau, who crossed the Sinai desert, in 1847, could not disagree more. She found camel-riding an utterly exhausting exercise: “The swaying motion causing an unintermitting pull upon one part of the spine, which can no means be exchanged for another, becomes at last perfectly intolerable, though easy and agreeable enough at the outset.

I would never say a word to encourage any woman to travel in the desert, if she must do it on the back of a camel.”

Water is an essential commodity on a desert trip and a number of texts deal with the topic of thirst, far more intolerable than hunger. During the days of camelback traveling, water was kept in bags made mostly of goatskin.

Frederick Hornemann, who traveled to Egypt in 1798, tells us that water kept in the best goatskins, made in Sudan, can remain five days without acquiring a bad taste. Bags of an inferior quality give water a foul taste and the smell of leather. One traveler compares it to ditch water, and a certain Adam Steinmetz Kennard, describes the water’s rich brown color and its taste as “very like what I could fancy water might be in which a quantity of boots had been boiled.”

Desert travelers to this day face not only the danger of running out of water, but they are also threatened by vicious sandstorms, which may last from a few hours to several days. Dr. R. R. Madden, an Irish Doctor, gives us a vivid description of the “khamsin,” a wind which blows from the south to the northwest and lasts for fifty days hence its name meaning ‘fifty’ in Arabic.

“The wind set with a vengeance: The sun was obscured by yellow clouds; the air was loaded with particles of sand; breathing became difficult, the mouth parched, the skin dry… I could hardly lift my head from the ground, and the sand was driving in furiously with the wind through every crevice in the tent… I found the sand had penetrated everywhere in my books and clothes, which were tied up in a hair-skin sack, and even in my watch-case there was sand,” writes Madden.

Until the arrival of the motorized vehicles, desert travelers were totally dependent on camels and the Bedouins — the Arab nomads of the desert — whose character was forged by the harsh environment in which they lived. They traveled by the stars at night and during the day, they used their own shadow as a compass. Tracking is their specialty and a champion tracker could tell you who, what, where, when and why.

The desert still offers a complete break from our stressful consumer society. At the turn of last century, the British Egyptologist, Arthur Weigall worked for the Egyptian Antiquities Service and eventually became Inspector General of Antiquities. He enjoyed “setting out into the freedom of the desert” and recognized that only people who have roamed across a desert can understand the pleasure of returning there.

Barlett, an exceptionally gifted artist also composed the text for his books. The poetic prose is harmoniously complemented by the realistic touch of his stunning drawings. Written in 1840, his enthralling description of wild music is one of the highlights of this “Traveling Through the Deserts of Egypt.”

“Wander but a few paces from the encampment, and listen in the profound of the solitude to the low and melancholy sigh of the night wind, which sweeps the light surface of the sand, and drifts it against the canvas wall of the tent; that breeze, laden with the voice of ages which traverse the old historic desert… There is a rapture in pacing alone with such fancies among the drifted sand-heaps, and listening to that wild music, till night has fallen upon the wilderness, over which millions of stars, rising up independently from the very edge of the vast horizon, seem quietly brooding.”

Ahmed Hassanein, an eminent Egyptian explorer, rediscovered the lost oases of Arkenu and Uweinat. He also completed one of the greatest desert journeys of all times — departing from the Mediterranean port of Sollum via the oasis of Kufra right down to Fasher in Sudan — totaling 3,572 kilometers. He genuinely knew the desert, loved it and perfectly understood the people of the desert. “The desert calls, but it is not easy to analyze its attraction and its charm,” Hassanein writes.

This travelogue helps us understand why people, throughout the ages, have wanted to experience the desert, and it also gives us some revealing descriptions of the timeless pleasures and hardship of traveling in the desert.

Turkey might be the world’s most contested country. Its landscape is dotted with battlegrounds, ruined castles and the palaces of great empires. This is the land where Alexander the Great slashed the Gordion Knot, where Achilles battled the Trojans in Homer’s Iliad, and where the Ottoman Empire fought battles that would shape the world. History buffs can immerse themselves in marvels and mementos stretching back to the dawn of civilisation.

Then again, if you want to simply unwind, spend an afternoon being pampered at ahamam, or let the warm waters off the Mediterranean coast lap at your toes. Adventure lovers can head east to Nemrut Daği National Park. Bon vivants need look no further than Istanbul, where the markets and bars are among the most stylish and atmospheric, and the mod Ottoman cuisine rates as the tastiest, in the world.

The country’s tumultuous history has left a deep legacy. People who’ve never had to suffer for an idea or fight for a patch of land can be overwhelmed by the passion of ordinary Turks for their country. But for ordinary Turks that passion finds its outlet, not in martial ardour, but in simple pleasures: family, food, music, football, and friendship. Turks have an inspiring ability to keep things in perspective, to get on with everyday life and to have a bloody good time in the process. Sharing their joy in the simple things is a highlight for every visitor.

Treat Turkey as that most quintessential of Turkish dishes, the meze, a table piled high with scrumptious treats. Throw away the menu, order a plate of everything and feast till you can’t go on. Afiyet olsun!