内容説明
The Scottish traveller James Bruce, who reached Cairo in 1768, explained that he was on his way up the Nile merely to see what was there. In his footsteps there followed a multi-national crowd of traders and tourists, soldiers and fortune-seekers, scholars and empire-builders, lured by Egypt's rich and ancient history, her compelling landscapes, the elusive ruins of once-magnificent civilisations or her increasingly strategic importance in world politics. Spanning two centuries of Western fascination - from Bruce's intrepid journey up the Nile to the departure of the last British troops from Suez - "Lifting the Veil" portrays the shifting interests, dreams and failures, passions and intrigues of an extraordinary cast of characters. From Napoleon Bonaparte with his schemes to control the overland route to India, to tomb-raiders such as Giovanni Belzoni; from scholars like hieroglyph-decoder Champollion to Thomas Cook and his wide-eyed tourists and Cromer and his bureaucrats, this fast-paced and richly-described narrative illuminates a bygone world and charts the end of imperialism and the advent of Egyptian Independence.
著者について
Anthony Sattin is a writer of history and travel, a specialist on the Middle East and North Africa and one of the ten key influences in modern travel writing according to Giles Foden. The author of several highly-acclaimed books, including The Pharaoh's Shadow, The Gates of Africa and A Winter on the Nile, Sattin is also a regular contributor to the Sunday Times and Conde Nast Traveller and has been widely published in the UK and in publications around the world. His broadcast work includes several high profile radio documentaries on the Arab world. He sits on the editorial advisory board of Geographical Magazine and has contributed to several guidebook series, including the Lonely Planet volumes on Egypt and Algeria.
