In 1900 five German scholars travelled to the region of the second cataract to study pharaonic fortifications and pursue ethnographic research in Nubia. Surplus funds from the Ernst-von-Sieglin-Expedition to Siwa Oasis were utilized to finance the expedition. Taking part were Ludwig Borchardt (1863–1938), later director of the Imperial German Institute for Egyptian Archaeology; the imperial German diplomat Curt von Gruenau (1871–1939); Heinrich Schäfer (1868–1957), later director of Berlin’s Egyptian Museum; Leipzig professor of Egyptology, Georg Steindorff (1861–1951); and the classical archaeologist Hermann Thiersch (1874–1939).
The expedition departed Assuan on March 3rd and went upstream as far as the second cataract and the fortress of Semna, visiting, among other sites, Philae, Kalabsha, Dendur, Dakke, Maharraqa, Amada, Aniba, Abu Simbel, Wadi Halfa and Mirgissa. The tour ended back at Assuan on April 19th .
Travelling by boat, the party had ample opportunity to study and record ancient temples, settlements, fortresses, and inscriptions, taking due note of their state of preservation. The scholars also verified and supplemented the results of the famous Prussian Expedition (1842–1845) of Carl Richard Lepsius (1810–1884); subsequently, their records were used for several publications.
During the journey two members of the party, Georg Steindorff and Heinrich Schäfer, kept diaries, recording memorable events and scientific results. Borchardt’s typed copy of Steindorff’s diary is preserved at the Swiss Institute in Cairo, whereas Schäfer’s journal was long believed lost.
Recent research through archival material at the German Archaeological Institute’s Cairo branch and at the headquarters in Berlin turned up Schäfer’s journal virtually intact.
To enable scholars to utilize this important source not only for the history of Egyptology but also as a travel log for a region nowadays totally submerged beneath the waters of Lake Nasser, Schäfer’s journal has been annotated and cross-references provided to Steindorff’s account. The text is supplemented with contemporaneous illustrations – photographs, water-colours, and postcards – to create an integrated sourcebook.