This Ph.D. thesis is engaged with an almost unknown aspect in egyptology - tourist practices in Egypt during the Graeco-Roman age. Pointed are the main reasons for these travels: thirst for exotic, searching for "marvels" and "ancient wisdom", pilgrimages to the sacred places of Osiris, Isis and oracle of Amon in Siva oasis. Analyzed are the graffiti made by travelers, so their different social status.

Greeks and Romans exploited the land of the Pharaohs as tourists, travelling along the Nile in search of marvels and wisdom. Natives also engaged in tourist travel as pilgrims visiting the gods at their festivals. All of these tourists left souvenirs of their visits in the form of graffiti scrawled on the Pyramids, the talking colossus of Memnon and the temple of Isis at Philae. The study examines the discernible travel patterns and motives of tourists in Egypt as gleaned from their graffiti, as well as the literary, epigraphic and papyrological evidence from Alexander's conquest in 332-1 B.C. to the destruction of the Alexandrian Serapeum in 392 A.D. The wisdom of Egypt was sought after by tourists who wished to consult with priests and learn about Egyptian religion and hieroglyphic writing, which they believed contained the origin of many Greek cults such as the mysteries of Eleusis and Dionysus. The 'fascination' with Egypt also included the sense of irresistible horror. A trip of Egypt was equated with a journey to the Underworld via the mythical language of the Osiris/Sarapis cult. Tourists expected to confront an industry of death in the Land of the Dead, as well as the ghosts of the recent past like Alexander the Great and Pompey. It was in Egypt, where the notion of Greek cultural supremacy had been shattered by Herodotus, that tourists came to terms with their own past.