The Discovery of Upper Egypt

Since very few Europeans made the difficult journey south, the most important places visited by European travelers in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period remained the Nile DeltaNile Delta with its metropolises AlexandriaAlexandria and CairoCairo. In an introductory chapter we will therefore first have a closer look to the geographical, economic and political background and the difficulties associated with travel beyond CairoCairo for Europeans and non-Muslims in the sixteenth century. There were, however, already economic and diplomatic contacts between Venice and Upper EgyptUpper Egypt since the fifteenth century, which favored closer intercultural encounters.