150+ FREE Books About Egypt

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This is a book index linking to various public domain (and thus free for download!) books focused on a specific subject: Egypt!

This post is specifically for nonfiction books, and covers topics like travel memoirs, guidebooks, history of both ancient and modern Egypt (1805 onward), archaeology, mythology/religion, geography and so on. Most of the links go to Project Gutenberg, where you can download nicely formatted EPUBs– but a few go to the Internet Archive, which hosts scanned PDF copies!

I’ve put this list together myself (no AI!!) by going through many (MANY) pages of books within the various Egypt-related subject pages on both Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive. There was a LOT, so it took several days to do this and I still didn’t “get all of them.” Look for a part 2 (and maybe a part 3) later.

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Note: Some links here are affiliate links, which means if you click on it and buy something, I get a small percentage. This money goes towards running the blog. Thank you for your support!

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Travel Memoirs, Guidebooks

On Project Gutenberg (EPUB format)

  1. From Vermont to Damascus: Returning by way of Beyrout, Smyrna, Ephesus, Athens, Constantinople, Budapest, Vienna, Paris, Scotland, and England by Adna Brown (1895)
  2. Khartoum, and the Blue and White Niles, Vol. 1 (of 2) by George Melly (1852)
  3. Khartoum, and the Blue and White Niles, Vol. 2 (of 2) by George Melly (1852)
  4. Letters from Egypt by Lady Lucie Duff Gordon (1902)
  5. A Thousand Miles up the Nile by Amelia B. Edwards (1888)
  6. Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from the year 1792 to 1798 by W. G. Browne (1799)
  7. Travels in the Far East by Ellen Mary Hayes Peck (1909)
  8. A Visit to the Holy Land, Egypt, and Italy by Ida Pfeiffer
  9. Egypt and Its Monuments by Robert Hichens (1923)
  10. The Critic in the Orient by George Hamlin Fitch (1913)
  11. My Winter on the Nile by Charles Dudley Warner (1876)
  12. Reminiscences of Travel in Australia, America, and Egypt by Sir Richard Tangye (1883)
  13. Cairo to Kisumu: Egypt—The Sudan—Kenya Colony by Frank G. Carpenter (1923)
  14. Peeps at Many Lands: Egypt by R. Talbot Kelly (1916)
  15. Egypt (La Mort de Philae) by Pierre Loti
  16. As Seen By Me by Lilian Bell (1900)
  17. An Artist in Egypt by Walter Tyndale (1912)
  18. The Englishwoman in Egypt by Sophia Lane Poole (1845)
  19. From sketch-book and diary by Elizabeth Butler (1909)
  20. Life in the Soudan by Josiah Williams (1884)
  21. Travels in the Upper Egyptian Deserts by Arthur E. P. Weigall (1913)
  22. The Spell of Egypt by Robert Hichens (1910)
  23. Notes of an Overland Journey Through France and Egypt to Bombay by Emma Roberts (1841)
  24. The East: Being a Narrative of Personal Impressions of a Tour in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria by William Young Martin (1876)
  25. Sketches in Egypt by Charles Dana Gibson (1899)
  26. Our Caughnawagas in Egypt by Louis Jackson (1885)
  27. Egypt, the Land of Mystery by Dwight L. Elmendorf (1913)
  28. Journal of Herbert Edward Pretyman written during his expedition to the Kittar Mountains, between Kenneh (on the Nile) and the Red Sea, 1891
  29. Sand and Canvas: Narrative of Adventures in Egypt by Samuel Bevan (1849)
  30. Mentone, Cairo, and Corfu by Constance Fenimore Woolson (1896)
  31. Travels in Kordofan by Ignatius Pallme (1844)
  32. What We Saw in Egypt by Anonymous
15 Vintage Photos of Late 1800s Egypt

On Archive.org (PDF format)

  1. Through Bible Lands: Notes of travel in Egypt, the desert, and Palestine by Philip Schaff (1878)
  2. New Egypt by A.B. de Guerville (1905)
  3. Travels in Egypt and Palestine by John Thomas (1853)
  4. Going down from Jerusalem: the narrative of a sentimental traveller by Norman Duncan (1909)
  5. A journalist in the Holy Land by Arthur Copping (1911)
  6. Arabia, Egypt, India: a narrative of travel by Isabel Burton (1879)
  7. Wintering in Egypt by Arthur J.M. Bentley and C.C. Griffinhoofe (1894)
  8. Egypt in 1898 by G.W. Steevens (1898)
  9. The Repose in Egypt by Susan Wallace (1888)
  10. A wayfarer in Egypt by Annie A. Quibell (1926)
  11. Out of Egypt by M. Elizabeth Crouse (1914)
  12. Notes of Travel in Egypt and Nubia; with an account of the Suez Canal by J.L. Stephens (1876)
  13. With Azir Girges in Egypt by Walter Scott Perry (1913)
  14. Egypt in transition by Sidney Low (1914)
  15. Travels in Egypt and Nubia by Frederick Ludvig Norden (1757)
  16. Mashallah! A flight into Egypt by Charles Warren Stoddard (1881)
  17. Baedeker’s Lower Egypt (1885)
  18. Baedeker’s Upper Egypt (1892)
  19. Baedeker’s Egypt (1898)
  20. Baedeker’s Egypt (1902)
  21. Baedeker’s Egypt and the Sudan (1914)

The Nile (Including Outside of Egypt)

  1. Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 1 (of 5) by James Bruce (1790)
  2. Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 2 (of 5) by James Bruce
  3. Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 3 (of 5) by James Bruce
  4. Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 4 (of 5) by James Bruce
  5. Travels to discover the source of the Nile, volume 5 (appendix)
  6. The Discovery of the Source of the Nile by John Hanning Speke
  7. What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile by John Hanning Speke (1864)
  8. The Nile Quest by Sir Harry Johnston (1906)
  9. The Nile in 1904 by Sir William Willcocks
  10. In the Heart of Africa by Sir Samuel White Baker
  11. The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, and the Sword Hunters of the Hamran Arabs by Sir Samuel W. Baker
  12. The binding of the Nile and the new Soudan by Sidney Cornwallis Peel (1904)
  13. The Albert N’Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, And Explorations of the Nile Sources by Sir Samuel W. Baker (1867)
  14. The Source of the Blue Nile by Arthur J. Hayes (1905)

History, Anthropology, etc.

Ancient Egypt

  1. An Account of Egypt by Herodotus
  2. Egyptian Literature by Epiphanius Wilson (1901)
  3. The Khedive’s Country by George Manville Fenn
  4. The Life and Times of Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt by Arthur E. P. Brome Weigall (1911)
  5. The Glory of the Pharaohs by Arthur E. P. Brome Weigall (1923)
  6. Egypt of the Pharaohs and of the Khedivé by F. Barham Zincke (1873)
  7. History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12)
  8. Tell el Amarna and the Bible by Charles F. Pfeiffer (1963)
  9. The Egypt of the Hebrews and Herodotos by A. H. Sayce (1895)
  10. History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery by L. W. King and H. R. Hall (1906)
  11. The Pharaohs and Their People: Scenes of old Egyptian life and history by Berkley (1884)
  12. Peeps at Many Lands: Ancient Egypt by James Baikie (1916)
  13. El Kab by James Edward Quibell (1897)
  14. The Birth of Civilization in the Near East by Henri Frankfort (1956)
  15. The Story of Cairo by Stanley Lane-Poole (1902/1906)
  16. Ancient Egypt by George Rawlinson and Arthur Gilman (1886)
  17. The Tell El Amarna Period by Carl Niebuhr (1903)
  18. Alexandria: A History and a Guide by E. M. Forster (1922)
  19. Siwa: The Oasis of Jupiter Ammon by Sir Charles Dalrymple Belgrave (1923)
  20. I-em-hotep and Ancient Egyptian Medicine: II. Prevention of Valvular Disease by Richard Caton (1904)

Modern Egypt

  1. The Status of the Jews in Egypt by W. M. Flinders Petrie (1922)
  2. The Egyptian campaigns, 1882 to 1885 by Charles Royle (1899)
  3. Arabian Society in the Middle Ages: Studies From The Thousand and One Nights by Edward William Lane (1883)
  4. Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the peninsula of Sinai by Richard Lepsius (1853)
  5. A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate by De Lacy O’Leary (1923)
  6. An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians by Edward William Lane
  7. The geography and geology of south-eastern Egypt by John Ball (1912)
  8. The Principles and Objects of Geology, with Special Reference to the Geology of Egypt by W. F. Hume (1911)
  9. The Topography and Geology of the Fayum Province of Egypt by H. J. L. Beadnell (1905)
  10. An Egyptian Oasis: An Account of the Oasis of Kharga in the Libyan Desert by H. J. Llewellyn Beadnell (1909)
  11. Egyptian Birds by Charles Whymper (1909)

Egyptology, Archaeology

Including memoirs by archaeologists!

  1. Five Years’ Explorations at Thebes by Carnarvon and Carter (1912)
  2. Manual of Egyptian Archaeology and Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt by G. Maspero (1895)
  3. A century of excavation in the land of the Pharaohs by James Baikie
  4. Methods & Aims in Archaeology by W. M. Flinders Petrie (1904)
  5. Discoveries in Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Peninsula of Sinai by Dr. Richard Lepsius (1853)
  6. Narrative of the operations and recent discoveries within the pyramids, temples, tombs and excavations in Egypt and Nubia; vol. 1: and of a journey to the coast of the Red Sea, in search of the ancient Berenice; and another to the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon by G. Belzoni (1822)
  7. Fruits of enterprize exhibited in the adventures of Belzoni in Egypt and Nubia: with an account of his discoveries in the pyramids, among the ruins of cities, and in the ancient tombs by Lucy Sarah Atkins Wilson (1843)
  8. The Romance of Excavation by David Masters (1923)
  9. Ten years’ digging in Egypt, 1881-1891 by W. M. Flinders Petrie (1893)
  10. The Treasury of Ancient Egypt by Arthur E. P. Brome Weigall (1912)
  11. Tutankhamen and the Discovery of His Tomb by the Late Earl of Carnarvon and Mr. Howard Carter (1923)
  12. Richard Lepsius, a biography by Georg Ebers (1887)

Mythology, Religion, etc.

  1. The Egyptian Book of the dead by P. Le Page Renouf and Edouard Naville (1904)
  2. The Book of the Dead by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge
  3. Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt by Lewis Spence (1915)
  4. The religions of ancient Egypt and Babylonia by A. H. Sayce (1903)
  5. Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (1908)
  6. The Religion of Ancient Egypt by W. M. Flinders Petrie (1906)
  7. Scarabs by Isaac Myer (1894)
  8. The Egyptian Conception of Immortality by George Andrew Reisner (1911)
  9. The Ancient Egyptian Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul by Alfred Wiedemann (1895)
  10. Legends of Babylon and Egypt in Relation to Hebrew Tradition by L. W. King (1920)
  11. Legends of the Gods by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (1912)
  12. Ancient Egyptian legends by Margaret Alice Murray (1920)
  13. The Story of Nefrekepta, from a Demotic Papyrus by Gilbert Murray (1911)
  14. Egyptian Tales, Translated from the Papyri: First Series, IVth to XIIth Dynasty by W. M. Flinders Petrie (1899)
  15. Egyptian Tales, Translated from the Papyri: Second series, XVIIIth to XIXth edited by W. M. Flinders Petrie (1895/1913)
  16. A History of Sinai by Lina Eckenstein (1921)
  17. ΝΕΚΡΟΚΗΔΕΙΑ; Or, the Art of Embalming by Thomas Greenhill (1700)
  18. The dawn of astronomy by Sir Norman Lockyer (1894)
  19. The Storehouses of the King; Or, the Pyramids of Egypt by Jane van Gelder (1885)

Art & Antiquities

  1. The art of the Saracens in Egypt by Stanley Lane-Poole (1888)
  2. A History of Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Perrot and Chipiez (1883)
  3. A History of Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol. 2 (of 2) by Perrot and Chipiez
  4. A guide to the Egyptian collections in the British Museum (1909)
  5. The Aswân Obelisk by Reginald Engelbach (1922)
  6. Cleopatra’s Needle: With Brief Notes on Egypt and Egyptian Obelisks by Erasmus Wilson (1877)
  7. Cleopatra’s Needle by the Rev. James King
  8. Scarabs: An Introduction to the Study of Egyptian Seals and Signet Rings by Percy E. Newberry (1908)
  9. Egyptian Art: Studies by G. Maspero (1913)
  10. The Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt by W. M. Flinders Petrie (1910)
  11. Egyptian Decorative Art: A Course of Lectures by W. M. Flinders Petrie (1920)
  12. Forged Egyptian Antiquities by T. G. Wakeling (1912)
  13. The Rosetta Stone by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (1913)
  14. An account of some recent discoveries in hieroglyphical literature, and Egyptian antiquities: including the author’s original alphabet, as extended by Mr. Champollion, with a translation of five unpublished Greek and Egyptian manuscripts (1823)
  15. Ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, and Persian costumes and decorations by Mary G. Houston and F.S. Hornblower (1920)
  16. Ancient Egyptian and Greek Looms by H. Ling Roth (1913)
  17. The New York Obelisk: Cleopatra’s Needle by Charles E. Moldenke (1891)

Cleopatra

  1. The Life and Times of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt by Arthur E. P. Brome Weigall (1914)
  2. Cleopatra: A Study by Henry Houssaye (1890)
  3. Predecessors of Cleopatra by Leigh North (1906)
  4. History of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt by Jacob Abbott (1854)
  5. Cleopatra by Jacob Abbott

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Anastasia

Hi, welcome! I’m Anastasia, a writer and artist who frequently digs through the public domain for inspiration. I end up finding way more than I can use myself, and I want to share it with you!

This blog aims to be a treasure chest of amazing things: poetry, art, recipes, crafts-- things you can make, read, listen to or otherwise engage with. Look though the directory and explore!