The first European explorers of the Nile were followed by an eclectic crowd of tourists, soldiers, archaeologists and fortune-seekers. This account tells their stories in the context of the political history of the country, following visitors including Nelson, Florence Nightingale, Flaubert, EM Forster and Noël Coward as they scramble up pyramids or party at Shepheard’s Hotel in the years between 1768 and 1956, when the last British soldier left Egypt.