Eliseev, A.V.: A Trip to Egypt, Stony Arabia, and Palestine

Title

Poezdka v Egipet, Kamenistuiu Araviiu i Palestinu, Moskva 1882

A Trip to Egypt, Stony Arabia, and Palestine

Keywords

Summary

The article was published in the fifth issue of “Izvestiia Russkogo Geograficheskogo obshchestva”, 1882 (p. 360-391). It reports the author’s journey to several major Egyptian cities, including Alexandria and Cairo, and his trip to the Sinai Peninsula, before continuing to Palestine. In the introduction, the author claims that travelling to Egypt has become comfortable and simple thanks to the boat that takes you from Odessa to Alexandria in only seven days. In Alexandria, he saw the famous catacombs, the Pompeian column, and some ruins, claiming that “there was nothing else of interest” and that “Alexandria is a European city: carriages, music in the squares, theatres, fashion, a mixture of languages”. From Alexandria he travels to Cairo, which he finds filled with Italians and Frenchmen, though there are also a few Russian families who seek cures by means of the dry air of the city. The author claims that he will not describe what he saw of the monuments of Egypt because they have been studied sufficiently. Having seen the monuments of Lower Egypt, he went by train to Ismailia and from there to Suez. He observes that in the cities of Lower Egypt, factory chimneys built by European colonists now stand. Having arrived in Suez, the author thoroughly prepares for the dangerous journey to Sinai. Crossing the Sinai Peninsula, he visits archaeological and biblical sites, looks for archaeological artefacts (finding tools from the Stone Age), and provides detailed information on the flora and fauna of these lands. Occasionally, he encounters villages with Arab populations. He visits Mount Sinai and the monastery, spending several days there. He then stops in Dahab, where he observes some slave traders who traded young women and eunuchs. From Dahab, the journey continues to Aqaba in Jordan and Palestine. Following the travel notes, the author provides an enumeration of scientific conclusions he made from the journey in terms of historical archaeology and anthropology.

Bio

Aleksandr Eliseev was a Russian doctor, traveller, and writer. Having served as a military doctor in Turkestan, the Baltic region, and Finland, Eliseev explored the northern regions of Russia, Finland, and the Urals. In 1881 he explored the Nile valley. In 1883 Eliseev crossed the deserts between the Nile and the Red Sea and travelled along the sea coast to Suakin, Massawa, and Aden. His most important journey to Africa began in 1884 from Tripoli. He travelled deep into the Sahara, crossed the Hamada el-Hamra plateau, but soon had to return to Tripoli. From there Eliseev went to Tunisia and visited the southern cities of Algeria, such as Constantine, Batna, Biskra. He also visited the oases of Ghadames, Touggourt, Ouargla, among others. In 1885 he went back to Algeria and subsequently returned to Russia. In 1893 Eliseev travelled to the Libyan desert, and in 1895 to Ethiopia, collecting anthropological, ethnographic and geographic material. He was a representative of the Palestine Society as physician at the military-medical department. Starting from 1878, he extensively described his travel experiences publishing them in Russian periodicals. For his contributions to geographical and anthropological research in Africa, the Russian Geographical Society awarded Eliseev with a silver medal.

Sources

M. Rait, Russkie ekspeditsii v Efiopii v seredine XIX-nachale XX vv. i ikh etnograficheskie materialy, “Afrikanskii etnograficheskii sbornik”, 1956, 1, p. 220-281;

M. Zabrodskaia, Russkie puteshestvenniki po Afrike, Moskva 1955;

B. Val’skaia, Vklad russkogo geograficheskogo obshchestva v izuchenie Afriki, “Strany i narody Vostoka”, 1969, 9, p. 5-18;

M. Gornung, I. Oleinikov, Geograficheskoe izuchenie Afriki v Rossii, in Izuchenie Afriki v Rossii (dorevoliutsionnogo perioda), ed. by A. Davidson, G. Nersesov, Moskva 1977, p. 30-71;

M. Zabrodskaia, Puteshestviia A.V. Eliseeva po Sakhare (1881-1893 gg.), “Strany i narody Vostoka”, 1987, 25.

M.E.