We are very aware that in the nineteenth century Egypt became very popular with adventurers and art collectors and at that time it was a country just rip for the picking. Interest in Egypt and its antiquities had been re-awakened to a great extent by Napoleon and others. Egypt became caught up now in the quest by the major powers like France and Britain to spread their influence in the wider world. Imperialism harnessed with the new Industrial Revolution made the need to advance one's national interest to wider pastures inevitable but it would take some time before structures were put in place to bring some order to the situation. In the meanwhile Egypt fell prey to the robbery and looting of it's monuments on as great a scale as earlier tomb robbers had inflicted in the time of the Pharaoh's.

But was Egypt always a source of interest down through the ages? The short answer to this is yes, but not to the same popular extent as in later times. In 391 AD Emperor Theodosius closed all pagan temples throughout the empire. Not that many people in Egypt still worshipped in the old ways but the closure of the temples did have a major consequence to the understanding of the hieroglyphic script which was now lost. This combined with the burning of the library of Alexandria in 47 BC and the loss of over 700,000 written works meant that there was now a break in the link between the old and the new worlds. Much written information was lost and this is why we now rely on the observations of those early visitors to Egypt to give us their incites based on what they saw. This was one way to try and understand the ancient world. Although observations are open to misinterpretation by both the observer and those who try to make sense of what their accounts say, however these remain a key element in trying to understand the ancient world despite their drawbacks

Following a long period of splendid isolation at the height of Egyptian power, pirates, mercenaries and traders began to reach Egyptian shores as power began to wane. Greeks, Persians, Assyrians and Romans would spread their influence there. One of the first visitors to visit Egypt was Herodotus, who arrived in 450 BC and his accounts of Egypt are contained in Book 2 of his "History". He remains a favoured source as his observations are mainly concerned with daily life and we can learn more fully from his accounts than from pictorial material or inscriptions. It is clear that Herodotus gives us his own personal account but it is less clear whether other visitors are giving their own accounts or if they are referring to reference material now since lost. An example is Diodorus Siculas who visited Egypt when Julius Caeser was in power. His accounts note the peasants making offerings to Isis and the cult of animals, which always amazed travellers at that time. Strabo visited Egypt in 30 BC when Egypt was a province of Rome. Due to his close friendship with the governor Aelius Gallus, he was able to travel extensively throughout the land. He describes the various religious festivals and particularly the social aspects and the merry making as opposed to the more formal features. He also gives us an in-debt detail of the animal cults and in particular his visit to Crocodilopolis where he gives an account of a sacred crocodile being fed with meat, cake and wine. Plutarch visited Egypt in the first century AD. We rely on him for his extensive work on the cults of Isis and Osiris, but he made great reference to Manetho's writings, which was still available and he verified his facts as opposed to taking an original line. Roman emperors Hadrian and Septumis Servus visited Egypt as their names are carved on the Colossi of Memnon. Germanicus went there in 19 BC to see the monuments for himself and with the aid of a local priest managed to translate the hieroglyphs into Latin and Greek. Others took an interest by restoring temples and buildings without having gone there.

From the 1st to the 14th century there are few accounts of visitors to Egypt. By this time Egypt was Muslim and not as easy to get access to and travel around. Visitors during this period be they monks, crusaders or educated men of their time were unable to translate the hieroglyphs and their travels were often limited to lower Egypt, seldom venturing any further south than Cairo. An example being Jean de Thevenof who stopped off in Egypt on his travels to India. While there he took measurements of the Great Pyramid. Many from the Christian tradition were only interested in Christian places rather than places connected with antiquity. They were also preoccupied with spreading the gospel. Egypt attracted Jesuits, Dominicans and Capuchins and in 1672 Father Vansleb, a Dominican arrived in Egypt on the instruction of Colbert, chief minister of Louis XIV. His task as well as visiting places of Christian interest was to seek out old manuscrips and coins. However his interest spread further to ancient sites e.g. the ruins of Antinoplis, built by Hadrian. Another priest Father Claude Sicard, drew up the first scientific map of Egypt but a sign of what would happen in the 19th century was demonstrated by Benoit de Maillet, the French Consul General, who began to send back some Egyptian artefacts to Louis XIV and other collectors. This was a sign of things to come and the floodgates would open in the wake of Napoleon's interest in 1798 and the deciphering of hieroglyphics by Chompollion using the Rosetta stone.