Florence Nightingale was twenty-nine when she visited Egypt in the winter of 1849-1850 with her friends Charles and Selma Bracebridge. She wrote long, picturesque letters to her family describing her visit and her views on the country, its history and its people. These letters were edited and privately printed by her sister, Parthenope, in 1854 and were greatly admired by those who read them, but they have never before been published.