Tourism through the Ages - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 30

Hadnakhte, scribe of the
treasury, came to make an excursion and amuse himself on the west of Memphis together with his
brother, Panakhti, scribe of the Vizier.''

They left evidence of their visits in inscriptions such as the following: ''

5 Like tourists through the ages, they felt the need to leave
evidence of their visits. Some hastily painted their names; others scratched their names in the soft
stone with a sharp point. The latter method was so common that the technical term we give to such
scribblings is graf ti, Italian for

''
A second recognizable tourist trait was the urge to acquire souvenirs. Harkhuf, an envoy of the
pharaoh to the Sudan, brought home a Pygmy trained in native dances to present to his ruler! Early
Egyptians

'' scratching.

also purchased bargains or specialties abroad for their friends and relatives. In 1800 B . C . E .,
young Uzalum received this request:

I have never beforewritten to you for something precious I wanted.
But if you want to be like a father tome, get me a fine string full of beads, to be worn around the head.

''

6

''

Herodotus reported:

The Egyptians meet to celebrate festivals not once a year but a number of times. The biggest and most
popular is at Bubastis . . . the next at Busiris . . . the third at Saïs . . . the fourth at Heliopolis . . . the

fthatButo...thesixthatPapremis....Theygothereontheriver,menandwomentogether,a
big crowd of each in each boat. As they sail, some of the women keep clicking castanets and some of
the men playing on the pipes, and the rest, both men and women, sing and beat time with their
hands. . . . And when they arrive at Bubastis, they celebrate the occasion with great sacri ces, and

more wine is consumed at this one festival than during the whole rest of the year. 7

When this holiday throng arrived at its sites, there were no commercial facilities offering food and
lodging. Like modern attendees at a Grateful Dead concert, they had to sleep in the open and feed
themselves as best they could. 8 In contrast, government of cials such as Harkhuf, the provider of the
dancing pygmy, enjoyed the comforts of temples and government depots in their travels.

Early Roads

The wheel led to the development of a heavy wagon that could be drawn by teams of oxen or
onagers, a type of wild ass.

9 but a vehicle needs a road.

'' A walker or animal needs only a track, ''

Ancient Egyptian pyramids and the Sphinx were some of the world's first tourist attractions.
PhotocourtesyofPhotoDisc,Inc./GettyImages.