Practical aspects of journeys in the Eastern Desert of Egypt (18th-20th c. AD): a contribution of western travellers' and early scholars' accounts

International audienceToday it only takes a few hours to travel from Qena to Qosseir or from Edfu to Berenice and our motorised vehicles allow us to carry heavy loads. Therefore, it can be difficult for us to apprehend the travel conditions during previous periods, when the journey necessarily lasted several days and the weight carried by the animals was more limited.From the 18th to the first half of the 20th century, many western travellers and scholars journeyed to the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Their accounts and descriptions allow us to reconstruct the conditions of the expeditions in the desert before the introduction of motorised vehicles. Their analysis, produced in the framework of the ERC Desert Networks project (dir. B. Redon), sheds light on the practices and materials of travellers and their guides in distinct travel contexts (caravans, military expeditions, exploration and surveys, exploitation of mineral resources, and individual crossings between the Nile and the Red Sea. In particular, they contain data about the organisation of the journeying groups, the equipment and food carried, the locations of the resting place (between two steps and/or during a step), the landmarks used for orientation and the interactions with other groups of travellers and/or desert inhabitants. The data collected in this way cannot, of course, be directly applied to ancient periods, but can be used as a referential of practices and logistics, to facilitate the interpretation of archaeological and historical data