The female travellers who shaped the ancient world

Discovery | Women at the Helm(Image credit: Alamy)By Kathleen Sheppard30th July 2024In the 1800s, a trio of women forever changed the study and understanding of ancient Egypt. So why have their legacies remained overlooked?IIn 1864, English travel writer Lucie Duff Gordon stood in her house atop Luxor Temple, looking out the window across the River Nile's west bank towards the Libyan mountains. Her face basked in the sun while she listened to the cacophony of camels lowing, donkeys braying and dogs barking below. She missed her family, whom she had left at home in London while she convalesced in Egypt's hot desert climate to ease her tuberculosis symptoms. She lived in the Maison de France, or French House, built by a military contingent in the area around 1815. She loved her self-proclaimed "Theban palace" and wrote letters to her family from its balcony almost daily.These Letters from Egypt, which richly detailed her time in the country, were published a year later as a book. By vivi...