Travels in Nubia 

by the 19th century explorer Johann Ludwig (aka John Lewis) Burckhardt, first published in 1819. 

This book features three separate memoirs: 

Burckhardt was a pioneering European traveller. He describes the landscapes and customs of North Africa in captivating detail.  This was one of the first accounts by a European to travel in the lands of Arabia. Burckhardt later published several other travelogues on the region, including Travels in Arabia, and Travels in Syria and the Holy Land.

This electronic PDF edition features the original two volume text by the Swiss explorer, enhanced with hyperlinks and biographical notes, plus period prints and maps of Syria and Egypt.

Purchase online in PDF ebook format for just $2.99

Travels in Arabia

by Johann Ludwig (aka John Lewis) Burckhardt, first published in 1829

One of the first narratives by a European traveler to explore the desert lands of Arabia. This edition features the original two volume text by the Swiss explorer, enhanced with hyperlinks and biographical notes, and illustrated with period prints and maps of Arabia. PDF version features mock parchment paper effect.  

Buy it now for only $2.99

Travels in Morocco by James Richardson, 1860

Richardson's journey through Morocco, visiting the Imperial Cities and rural Moorish villages. Includes unique eye-witness descriptions of traditional customs and ceremonies, Arab, Jewish and Berber life, local sports and combat, snake-charming and white slavery. 

This electronic edition features the original text from Volumes 1 and 2, illustrated with period photos and maps of 19th Century Morocco, and with bibliographic notes. PDF version features mock parchment paper effect.  

"To describe the dresses of the bride would be tedious, as she was carried away every hour and redressed, going through and exhibiting to public view, with the greatest patience, the whole of her bridal wardrobe. Her face was artistically painted; cheeks vermillion; lips browned, with an odoriferous composition; eye-lashes blackened with antimony; and on the forehead and tips of the chin little blue stars. The palms of the hands and nails were stained with henna, or brown-red, and her feet were naked, with the toe-nails and soles henna-stained. She was very young, perhaps not more than thirteen, and hugely corpulent, having been fed on paste and oil these last six months for the occasion. The bridegroom, on the contrary, was a man of three times her age, tall, lank and bony, very thin, and of sinister aspect. The woman was a little lump of fat and flesh, apparently without intelligence, whilst the man was a Barbary type of Dickens' Fagan."

Buy and download in PDF format for $2.99

Price just $2.99

Formats: Acrobat Reader (PDF); Microsoft Reader (LIT) 

Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, 1855, by Captain Richard Francis Burton

(Originally published by the notorious Leonard Smithers, friend and patron of Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde. Edited by Isabel Burton)

The original text from Volumes 1 and 2 of this fascinating travelogue by the famous and erudite Victorian soldier, linguist and explorer, who travelled Arabia in disguise, often posing as a doctor; seventy years before Lawrence of Arabia. Filled with colorful characters: "kayf"or hashish-smoking policemen, fakirs, slaves, courtesans, strange ceremonies, sudden violent deaths, constant aphrodisiac and drug-taking. 

It has lost none of its power over the years. With period illustrations, maps, selected footnotes and appendices; annotated with biographical notes. PDF version features mock parchment paper effect.  

"Ali Agha welcomed me politely, and seeing me admire the preparations, bade me beware how I suspected an Albanian of not knowing how to drink; he made me sit by him on the bed, threw his dagger to a handy distance, signalled me to do the same, and prepared to begin the bout. Taking up a little tumbler, in shape like those from which French postilions used to drink la goutte, he inspected it narrowly, wiped out the interior with his forefinger, filled it to the brim, and offered it to his guest with a bow. I received it with a low salam, swallowed its contents at once, turned it upside down in proof of fair play, replaced it upon the floor, with a jaunty movement of the arm, somewhat like a pugilist delivering a "rounder," bowed again, and requested him to help himself. The same ceremony followed on his part Immediately after each glass,-and rapidly the cup went about,-we swallowed a draught of water, and ate a spoonful of the meat or the Salatah in order to cool our palates. Then we re-applied ourselves to our pipes, emitting huge puffs, a sign of being "fast" men, and looked facetiously at each other,-drinking being considered by Moslems a funny and pleasant sort of sin.

The Albanian captain was at least half seas over when we began the bout, yet he continued to fill and to drain without showing the least progress towards ebriety. I in vain for a time expected the bad-masti (as the Persians call it,) the horse play, and the gross facetiae, which generally accompany southern and eastern tipsiness Ali Agha, indeed, occasionally took up the bottle of perfume, filled the palm of his right hand, and dashed it in my face: I followed his example, but our pleasantries went no further."

Download it in PDF format

Buy and download in PDF format for $2.99

The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, and the Sword Hunters of the Hamran Arabs, by Sir Samuel White Baker

The original text, from one of Baker's most daring colonial adventures. His account of a 14 month voyage through the dangerous tribes of Abyssinia, his encounters with wild animals, culminating in the discovery of Lake Albert, for which Baker was knighted.  Annotated with biographical notes, plus many of the original line art illustrations, plus period photos and maps of 19th Century Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Copies of the original publication are scarce, and expensive. Buy this ebook version and enjoy Baker's classic for a fraction of the price. PDF version features mock parchment paper effect.  

"Upon my arrival at the tents, I found the camp redolent of musk from the flesh of the crocodile, and the people were quarrelling for the musk glands, which they had extracted, and which are much prized by the Arab women, who wear them strung like beads upon a necklace.

A crocodile possesses four of such glands; they vary in size according to the age of the reptile, but they are generally about as large as a hazel-nut, when dried. Two glands are situated in the groin, and two in the throat, a little in advance of the fore-legs. I have noticed two species of crocodiles throughout all the rivers of Abyssinia, and in the White Nile. One of these is of a dark brown colour, and much shorter and thicker in proportion than the other, which grows to an immense length, an is generally of a pale greenish yellow. Throughout the Atbara, crocodiles are extremely mischievous and bold; this can be accounted for by the constant presence of Arabs and their flocks, which the crocodiles have ceased to fear, as they exact a heavy tribute in their frequent passages of the river. The Arabs assert that the dark-coloured, thick-bodied species is more to be dreaded than the other.

The common belief that the scales of the crocodile will stop a bullet is very erroneous. If a rifle is loaded with the moderate charge of two and a half drachms it will throw an ounce ball through the scales of the hardest portion of the back; but were the scales struck obliquely, the bullet might possibly glance from the surface, as in like manner it would ricochet from the surface of water. The crocodile is so difficult to kill outright, that people are apt to imagine that the scales have resisted their bullets. The only shots that will produce instant death are those that strike the brain or the spine through the neck."

Ancient Egypt - Old Engravings - Screensaver

A digital album of vintage prints, paintings and lithographs on the theme of Egypt, compiled in screensaver format for Windows.

The Pharaonic monuments, ruined temples, and antique views of the Pyramids, Sphinx, River Nile and venerable Egyptian cities, including Cairo, Luxor, Thebes, Abel Simbel, Aswan, Karnak, Philae, captured by Victorian and Napoleonic Egyptologists, and artists including Champollion, and David Roberts in his famous three volume study, "Egypt and Nubia". Plus several old maps of Egypt. More than 75 fantastic images in a rolling slideshow!

Price now just $4.99. Download it here!