Florence Nightingale's Letters from Egypt - 1849-50

Among some of the earliest British women travelers to visit Egypt in the 19th century, was Florence Nightingale, she was an  extremely brave lady  to step out of the boundaries in the 19th century Victorian period, where it was considered only decent that a woman should marry and look after her husband and children. In Victorian society women had no rights, but with extreme determination Florence chose to  travel half way across the world to Egypt, and immerse herself in a completely different culture, writing her diary that was later published.

Florence Nightingale went to Egypt in the winter of 1849 when she was 29 years old on a five month trip, apart from visiting the Antiquities, her interest for Egypt had been aroused through the travels of Giovanni Belzoni. Whilst in Egypt Florence visited a convent, and saw first hand  how the Nuns kept the sick wards in the convent spotlessly clean, it was the complete opposite of English hospitals that were filthy, along with the poor wretches in the wards, this visit to the convent lead to Florence's knowledge of how to run a hospital, and later when the Crimean war started in 1854, she put this  knowledge to use , and changed nursing practices for the better to treat the wounded soldiers that were dying of disease and injuries.

In her diary she commented about the Muslim faith :

'there is much good in the Mohametan religion. Charity is unbounded; and it is not the charity of patronage, but the charity of fellowship. If any man says to another “Inshallah,” In the name of God, he may sit down at his table and partake of anything that he has, and no man will refuse. The beggar will do this with the greatest dignity. There is no greediness, no rapacity. Nothing of any value is ever stolen from you; there is no need to shut the door: they will take a trifle, but nothing else'

Hiring a dahabyeha  Florence went all the way up the River Nile to Abu Simbel, here she wrote in her diary  'Sublime in the highest style of intellectual beauty, intellect without effort, without suffering … not a feature is correct—but the whole effect is more expressive of spiritual grandeur than anything I could have imagined. It makes the impression upon one that thousands of voices do, uniting in one unanimous simultaneous feeling of enthusiasm or emotion, which is said to overcome the strongest man.' Florence loved her journey up the Nile, to see all the wondrous temples, and in comparison her heart went out to the poorest Egyptians who she noticed lived in poverty and awful conditions  in the villages at the side of the Nile.

Florence nightingale's sister prepared her diary  for publication, it titled :
'Letters from Egypt A Journey on the Nile 1849-1850. It was published in 1854.