Amelia Edwards was born in London in 1831, the daughter of an army officer. This book describes a 1000 mile journey up the Nile she undertook in 1873. Although the trip was initially undertaken to escape the rain in Europe, Edwards was no vacuous tourist; her lively account of Ancient Egypt's great antiquities made this book a bestseller of its day. Following this journey, Amelia Edwards went on to become one of Britain's leading Egyptologists and to endow the country's first chair in the subject, at University College, London.