Whether you are living in Sharm or planing to move to the Sinai, this page lists books
about the Sinai or Egypt in general. They could be guides for your life in Egypt. Even we live in Sharm we might not know the Western Desert or might not be familiar with the Egyptian kitchen. Therefore we thought this page will be
useful to understand the country we all live in. Listed are travel-guides, history books, phrase books and cooking books. These books are available through Amazon. Just click the book you are interested in and order it. Books can be sent to Egypt without having to pay major custom fees. Let us also know your favorite books, whether the topic is Egypt or anything else you think could be of interest for other women, we would like to add them to our list. Send your email to our webmaster. Give us your input.
Travel Guides
Sinai: The Site and the History Mursi Sa'd al-Din Six Egyptian scholars and two master photographers capture a lasting impression and a host of little known facts and history about this vital and strategic geographic entity. The essays, together with 60-plus color photographs, most of them full-page, provide a comprehensive picture of the region's more info
Guide to Exploration of
the SinaiAlberto Siliotti (Photographer) A book which presents a vast
number of routes for those who wish to explore the Sinai peninsula -
either in an armchair or in real life - along ancient tracks and through
wadis on the interior of a desert full of majestic and wild landscapes and
along some of the loveliest coastlines on earth. The text is accompanied
by detailed maps, created specially for this book, specific practical
information, and photographs of great power and beauty. * Northern Sinai *
The Suez Canal * The Gate of Egypt * West Coast of Sinai * Sharm
El-Sheik * Strait of Tiran * From Naama Bay to Dahab * Blue Hole *
Monastery of Saint Catherine * Gebel Musa (Mount Horeb and Moses) * * Abu
Galum National Park * Gebel Katherina * The Blue Desert *
more info
Sinai(Egypt Pocket
Guides) Alberto Siliotti
This guide covers the natural environments of the Sinai peninsula - the
coral reefs,the desert and the oases. It covers the history, from Moses
and the exodus to the modern period and it covers the places - al-Tor,
Sharn al-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba, Taba, St. Catherines and al-Arish.
more info
Egypt Insight Guide (Insight Guides S.)This guide includes a section detailing
Egypt's history, eight features covering aspects of the country's life and
culture, ranging from its spectacular pyramids to its breathtaking
bazaars; a region by region visitor's guide to the sights, and a
comprehensive travel tips section packed with essential contact addresses
and numbers. Plus hundreds of photographs and 21 maps and site plans.
more info
Lonely Planet Egypt (Country Guides) Joann Fletcher, Andrew Humphreys, Siona Jenkins, A. Sattin
The authors provide travellers on any budget with the information needed
to get around in Egypt, covering history, culture, flora and fauna,
accommodation, language, local cuisine, and health and safety.
more info
The Rough Guide to Egypt Dan
Richardson, Karen OBrien Egypt remains the most popular and varied
destination in the Middle East. This guide has a 200-page section devoted
to Cairo and the Pyramids alone, as well as full coverage of the great
landscapes, from the Nile Valley to the Sinai coast and the oases of the
Western Desert. For pre-departure inspiration, the author's "things not to
miss" section aims to immerse the reader in the sights and sounds of this
enthralling destination. The book also includes the latest on Red Sea
diving, including new areas being opened up away from the established
resorts.
more info
Egypt and Nubia: Gifts of the DesertRenee
Friedman (Editor)
This volume originates in an international colloquium
held in the British Museum in 1998. It comprises 18 papers, written by
leading scholars, each of whom explores an aspect of the use and
exploitation of the deserts lying to the east and west of the Nile Valley
by the ancient Egyptians and their prehistoric ancestors. Exploding the
myth that Egypt was simply the "Gift of the Nile", it aims to create an understanding
of how the Egyptians perceived and exploited their wider environment.
more info
The Western Desert of
Egypt: An Explorer's HandbookCassandra Vivian
A guide for anyone travelling in Egypt's Western Desert. Oasis by Oasis,
the book explores major and minor sites, little-known desert areas that
promise serenity, and an array of caravan routes. Descriptions of sites,
people and places are complemented by practical information on routes and
places to stay, eat and fill your gas tank. Global positioning system
(GPS) waypoints are provided as an aid to navigatin on many routes.
more info
Dive Guides
Red Sea Reef Guide
Helmut Debelius
Sport Diver, March 2001 - Covering all of the Red Sea, from Israel to
Sudan and beyond, this guide identifies virtually every underwater
creature you will sea.
DIVE, April 2000 - Accepted as the best in the world - a beautiful
hardback classic. more info
Lonely Planet Diving and Snorkelling... This
guide presents sites for divers in the Red Sea. The information on each
site includes: depth and visibility; required expertise; bottom terrain;
currents; marine life; safety tips; and local dive shops. more info
Arabic-English Dictionary Phrasebook J. Wightwick - As the national language
of nearly 20 countries in Africa and Asia, and spoken by approximately 190
million people, Arabic is the lingua franca of the Middle East. This title
uses a standard Arabic helpful to those travelling all over the region.
The emphasis is on commonly heard terms and phrases that are recognisable
throughout the Arabic speaking world. Both the dictionary and phrasebook
incorporate the Arabic script and its romanised transliteration. The
two-way dictionary contains important travel, geographical, and cultural
terminology, while the phrasebook focuses on the needs of travellers and
covers almost every situation from arrival to departure.
more info
The Rough Guide to
Egyptian Arabic (A Dictionary Phrasebook) Lexus, Lexus Translations
The dictionary-style structure of this Egyptian Arabic phrasebook allows
the user to speak in the way they would in their own language. Feature
boxes fill in on the dos and don'ts, cultural know-how and other matters
where language is important, like making a phonecall
more info
Egyptian Cooking
Samia Abdennour
Almost 400 recipes, from breakfast to dessert,
represent the best of authentic Egyptian familiy cooking for all tastes,
seasons, and degrees of dedication.more info
A New Book of Middle Eastern
Food(Cookery Library) Claudia Roden
...make it this one. The recipes easy
to follow, and Roden's writing style is peppered with amusing anecdotes
about her childhood in Egypt and historical information that make this
book a good read outside the kitchen as well as in.
Roden's recipes are authentic. Many include alternate suggestions and
regional variations from family recipes submitted by her friends and
readers from across the region, so chances are you'll always have the
proper ingredients to hand.
In other words...absolutely essential. more info
Bedouin Life in the Egyptian Wilderness
Joseph J. Hobbs, Leo A. Tregenza (Designer)
Joseph Hobbs based his work on Leo Tregenza's earlier "Egyptian Years" (op) and updated and drew on Tregenza's accounts of life with the Bedu of the Eastern Desert of Egypt, between the Nile and the Red Sea.
Geographically, botanically, zoologically and anthropologically it is a fascinating book with all kinds of gems of information which are found nowhere else. It can be a little dry in places (no pun intended) hence the four stars rather than five but for those travelling in this arid, yet beautiful, region, it is well worth the effort.
more info
Baladi Women of Cairo: Playing with an
Egg and a Stone Evelyn A.
Early
Traditional, urban Egyptian women - baladi women - extol themselves with
the proverb, "A baladi woman can play with an egg and a stone without
breaking the egg". Evelyn Early illustrates this and other expressions of
baladi women's self-identity by observing and recording their everyday
discourse and how these women - who consider themselves destitute yet
savvy - handle such matters as housing, work, marriage, religion, health
and life in general. Based on more than three years of research in Bulaq
Abu'Ala - a jammed popular quarter north of the fashionable Nile-side
hotel district of Cairo - Early's work reveals important cultural themes
by minimizing the reflective gaze of the researcher and allowing
spontaneous discourse and narrative recountings to "catch" culture in
action.
more info
A Woman of Egypt
Jehan Sadat Jehan Sadat, wife of former Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat about her very personal life.
more info
The Cairo House Samia
Serageldin
This is a haunting and very beautifully written book. It evokes the city
of Cairo marvelously covering several decades in the last half of the
century. Although the story focuses around a particular family house
there, it is really a very personal story of an Egyptian woman and her
life both in Egypt and abroad. I found it a very thought-provoking book
and would recommend it without any doubt
more info
The Cairo Trilogy: Palace
Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman's Library)
Naguib Mahfouz, Edward W. Said (Introduction), William M. Hutchins
(Translator)
This trilogy takes you through the history of Cairo/ Egypt at the start of
the 20th century and in fact also leads you through three generations of
the same family undergoing, shaping and living the events of that time.
The tone is frank - it boosted by understading and appreciation for the
culture involved.
more info
Daily Life in Ancient and
Modern Cairo (Cities Through Time) Joan Barghusen, Bob Moulder
(Illustrator) - The Amazing Story of the Gateway to the East; Home to more
than 13 million residents, Cairo is heir to the diverse traditions of more
than five thousand years of Egyptian history. In Daily Life in Ancient and
Modern Cairo, young readers will watch as the ancient Egyptians build
majestic pyramids. Centuries later, Cairo's bustling markets at the
juncture of east and west made the city one of the medieval world's
richest trading centres. In the 1800s, Europeans turned Cairo into a
luxurious vacation outpost. Modern Cairo's residents mingle traditional
and contemporary lifestyles in this timeless city.
more info
The Alexandria Quartet
Lawrence Durrell
With its politics, passions, corruption and vice, this quartet of novels
is set in war-time Alexandria. The experimental form presents the
narrative from different view points, allowing the story to unfold
gradually.
This is one of the major english novels of the century and it is a shame
that it not read and known more widely.
more info
Ancient Egypt
Egyptology, Search for the Tomb of Osiris -
Emily Sands, Dugald Steer (Editor), Ian Andrew (Illustrator), Nick Harris
(Illustrator), Helen Ward (Illustrator
A facinating guide to Ancient Egypt, told through the (fictional) journal
of Emily Sands who, in 1926, led an expedition up the Nile to find the
lost body of Osiris. On January 5th 1927, Emily Sands and her companions
vanished without trace and were never seen again... more info
Miscellaneous
Cairo (City Maps S.) Lonely
PlanetThis is one in a series of maps covering cities on and off the beaten
track. It includes public transport routes and walking tours as well as
essential information and telephone numbers.
more info
The Awesome Egyptians
(Horrible Histories S.) Terry Deary, Martin
Brown (Illustrator)
History with the nasty bits left in. Awful information about phabulous
Pharoahs, mean mummies, revolting recipes for 3000 year old sweets, and
more. History has never been so horrible! For 9-12 year olds.
more info
