1899 From Shpinx to Oracle Through the Libyan Desert to the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon

Description

First Edition, Folding Maps, Illustrated, Publishers' Original Binding

White's journey is to the Ammon Oracle in modern day Siwa. The oracle was visited by Alexander the Great in February 332. To the introduction White says that 'the goal of my ambition lay less than 500 miles to the west of the spot where the Sphinx keeps watch and ward. I refer to Jarabub, the Mecca of the African continent.' He did not reach the stronghold of the Senussi and instead 'The Oracle of Jupiter Ammon, dumb for twenty centuries, its shrine violated and cast down, spoke again in no uncertain voice. It commanded me, in the name of the Mahdi, to arrest my footsteps on the threshold of Senussi-land, at the oasis of Siwa. The first chapter delves into the history of the Ammon Oracle in Siwa, its origin, and previous travellers. White then delves into a description of his own journey across the desert in the late nineteenth century. Illustrated, with a frontispiece, vignette title page, nineteen plates from photographs taken by White, numerous in-text photographs, and two folding maps. Collated, complete. Arthur Silva White, was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He wrote several works on the Expansion of Egypt under the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium and on the Development of Africa.