4to. VI, 294 pp., final blank leaf. With watercolour frontispiece, 5 (instead of 7) watercolour plates, and numerous black and white photographic illustrations and sketches in the text. Contemporary half calf library binding with giltstamped spine, leatherette covers and shelfmark label. First edition. Richly illustrated travel report describing Egypt and the Nile, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. This "altogether satisfactory book of travel" (Luzac) describes an extensive trip undertaken in the late 1890s by the German painter Hermann Götz, the Director of the Grand Ducal School for Arts and Crafts in Karlsruhe. - In Genoa Götz boarded a steamer to Port Said, from where he proceeded to Cairo, Thebes, Luxor, and Aswan, then on to the Lebanon and Syria, stops including Beirut and Baalbek, Damascus and Haifa; he eventually reached Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho and the Dead Sea. The lovely watercolours, reproduced after works by the author himself, show the statue of the wife of Ramesses II in the temple of Luxor, the entrance to the temple in Medinet-Habu, the ruins at Baalbek, and a bazaar in Jaffa, as well as atmospheric sunset scenes on the shores of the Nile and on Mount Olivet. The photographic illustrations show famous landmarks including the Pyramids, the Cairo citadel, the Dome of the Rock, and the windmills of Alexandria, as well as bazaar and street scenes, local types, views of the Nile, and group portraits of Götz's travel companions. - Spine very lightly rubbed. Tear to the upper edge of the title-page; pp. 63f. somewhat damaged and stained. Still a good copy of this entertaining travelogue seeking to encourage Europeans to travel the Middle East. Kainbacher I, 57. Luzac's Oriental List and Book Review XII, 236. OCLC 315953018.
