Feature: 19th Century Travel in Egypt

Heritage Key (Ann Wuyts)

With photos.

Gustave Flaubert - the author of 'Madame Bovary' - travelled through Egypt from October 1849 to July 1850. Together with his friend and photographer Maxime Du Camp he journeyed from Alexandria in the North to Sudan in the South and back. This journey is the focus of the exhibition 'Het Egypte van Gustave Flaubert' (Gustave Flaubert's Egypt), which runs at the RMO in Holland until April 4th 2010. The expo follows the famous French writer on his journey through Egypt and takes its visitors from the amazing pyramids at Giza and the sanctuaries at Luxor to the gigantic pharaonic statues at Abu Simbel in the deep south. Through fragments from Flaubert's letters and diary, unique photographs by Du Camp and about a hundred ancient Egyptian artefacts the exhibition recreates a typical view of Egypt at that time, as seen through the eyes of a European traveller.

Gustave Flaubert's travel diary - published as 'Flaubert in Egypt' - gives a detailed account of his journey through Egypt. His travelling companion Du Camp took many exquisite photographs of the monuments and excavations they visited together, at that time not yet crowded with tourists and still partly hidden under the sand.