Death is a state of the soul, merely a change of residence. Why be so sad? My father has summoned me into the embrace of another life. One day, I too will summon you thus, and you will summon your children in turn. The years flow on like this...
—Carlo Bonaparte
The people of Egypt called their land Kemet, meaning the Black Land. Any land irrigated by the Nile River was that color, unlike the red earth untouched by the river's waters. The pharaohs believed that the source of the Nile River lay in the subterranean waters of the underworld, emerging from a cave between granite rocks beneath Elephantine Island.
Kemet was described in many places as a paradise. The river fertilized the soil, while lush marshes and grasslands provided food and shelter for domesticated and wild animals.
There were vast numbers of waterfowl along the banks, fish everywhere in the river, and solemn, majestic temples standing upon the shore.
Even now, though no priests devoutly chanted prayers to beseech the gods' blessings, and the temples had become dilapidated through age, neglect, and the destruction wrought by tomb robbers, visitors who had come from afar would not be disappointed. If anything, the ruined temples gave them a sense of history's vicissitudes, as though they were riding through ancient ruins.
In the 1870s, thanks to Wilkinson's Handbook for Travellers in Egypt, even Europeans who knew little about Egyptology could travel to Egypt using this guidebook. Egypt had become a winter holiday destination for many wealthy and less wealthy Europeans. There was regular steamship service between Italy and Alexandria.
The boom in tourism brought European society into broader contact with "Eastern civilization."
Mark Twain once described Egypt's flourishing scenery in The Innocents Abroad: the endless plains were lush and green, the crops