Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

PREFACE.

In order to hasten the publication of this work, it
was my original intention to have put the MS. into
the hands of a printer at Alexandria; but detained
at first by the cholera morbus, and subsequently
prevented by his death from having it printed in
Egypt, I have been obliged to forward it to England,*
which will necessarily occasion considerable delay.
Had I been aware of this at first, I might have ex-
tended my historical or chronological account of the
Egyptian monarchs ; nor should I have confined the
fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters to their present
limits.

I have avoided entering at any length on the
subject of hieroglyphics, as being of little interest
to the general reader, and some future opportunity
may present itself, when the study of them is better
understood.

The work mentioned in Chapter V. has occupied

* Since writing the above, I have had my Survey of Thebes
and the Pyramids engraved. It was intended to accompany this
work, but is now published separately; and as the Royal Geogra-
phical Society have kindly taken it under their protection, I refer
those who wish for copies of it to their rooms in Regent-street.