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NOTE: Much of the following information has been abstracted from "Les Postes en Egypte," the souvenir publication issued in French by the Egyptian Government for distribution at the Tenth Congress of the Universal Postal Union at Cairo.

The Ancients

Mark Twain is reputed to have said, 'The ancients steal all our best ideas'. There seems o be a lot of truth in this statement as we are brought again and again to fascinating truths that whatever we try to do, in some way or other - within the limitations imposed on them through lack of the proper technology - the ancients have done them long before we even conceived of them. Sending and receiving mail is one such area. This is especially true with regard to Egypt. Mail through the ages in Egypt has an interesting and colorful history.

Egypt is one of the cradles of civilization and one of the few places where man stopped wandering around and decided to stay in one place. It is, therefore, not surprising that since the early pharaohs of Egypt had well organized governments, with extensive armies, fleets and conquered territory we could assume that they must have had an efficient system for transmitting domestic messages and political and commercial information to areas outside Egypt. Unfortunately there are not many records concerning their communication methods. 

The earliest known reference is an inscription traced back to the 12th Dynasty (about 2000 B.C.). It confirms the existence of a postal system that was used extensively. This inscription is a written request by a father to his son to become a scribe, because of the possible brilliant future of that profession in government service. (It is known that the Pharaohs then had scribes who were capable in all known languages and writings.) In an attempt to dissuade the boy from other vocations, the father mentions the dangers in the life of a postal courier and refers to one at Beni Hasan and El Bersheh, concerning whom he wrote: "The courier who went to foreign lands made his will and left his belongings to his children, because of the dangers from lions and from Asiatics."

Other records are also available. Among the most interesting old messages known are the famous tablets bearing the cuneiform writing of El Amarna. These came mostly from the diplomatic archives which Amenophis IV transported from Thebes in 1364 B.C. to his new capital at El Amarna. The documents were those of correspondence exchanged during the reigns of Amenophis III (1405-1370 B.C.) and Amenophis IV (13701352 B.C.) between these kings and those of the Mittani, the Hittites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and those of Cyprus and Cilicia. It is believed that the couriers of the Pharaohs who carried the messages to other kingdoms were all mounted horsemen who followed the banks of the Nile in the interior, and then the routes of armies and caravans.

Egypt was conquered by the Persians in 525 B.C. and by the Greeks in 332 B.C. The Persians undoubtedly improved the system by introducing the postal reforms and facilities of Cyrus the Elder. The Ptolemies, who reigned from 323 to 30 B.C., therefore must have inherited at least the nucleus of a postal system. They further developed their posts to notable regularity, speed and dependability. Their known routes extended to all the principal Egyptian cities at the time and covered a large number of stations.

Written records in the form of two important papyri tell us about the functioning, respectively, of the rapid post for the messages of the monarch, his ministers and high officers, and the slower post which served the local officials. The first papyrus, found at El Hibeh, is a fragment of the register of the postmaster at Fayoum. This officer recorded day by day the letters which arrived from central Egypt for the monarch and those which came from the royal chancellor and were destined to officials in Central and Southern Egypt. Also recorded was the hour of arrival of each letter, the name of the carrier from the preceding station and that of the carrier to the next. They even worked to timings: A study of this document indicates that six hours was the fixed time to send a message from the preceding station to Fayoum. Also on record is the information that the same time was required from Fayoum to the next station, and that Fayoum was served by four couriers, two going North at 6:00 A.M. and 6:00 P.M., respectively, and two going South at noon and 5:00 P.M., respectively. Messages going north usually bore city addresses, and where this was missing, the destination was understood to be Alexandria. Messages for the sovereign bore only his name, indicating that the postmaster always knew whether he was at the palace in Alexandria or elsewhere. Messages going South from Alexandria and for anyone but the sovereign always bore city addresses. A payment by a man who had no connection with the posts is mentioned. Researchers conclude that this payment was probably the penalty imposed upon a private citizen who failed to furnish his share of postal horses or maintenance supplies. This papyrus bears no date, but since it mentions Apollonius, who served under Ptolemy II (Philadelphus), we may safely fix the period as the Third Century B.C.

The second papyrus, found at Oxyrhynchos, proves that in 111 B.C. the slower postal service for minor officials was brought there by 44 couriers, a camel rider and a military guard, and that all messages were recorded. The camel rider carried the heavy packages, and the guard was probably employed to protect what the camel carried. Except for the fact that only one camel trip per day was made from this particular post office, nothing is known about the regularity of the carrier service. In addition to this, private messages could have been transported by travelers who happened to be going to the desired destinations or by captains of boats who transported grain and heavy objects for the government. The Romans, after their conquest of Egypt (30 B.C.), did not greatly modify the interior organization and administration, and in postal matters, utilized the same facilities as their predecessors. However, they did develop the system to conform in efficiency with their own Cursus Publicus.

The type of private postal service employed by important merchants of the Byzantine period is indicated by a papyrus, embodying a contract dated 550 A.D. and made by one Aurelius Sirinous, organizer of horse post routes, with a citizen of Oxyrhynchos, for transmitting messages of the latter for a period of one year. According to the document, Sirinous agreed to do this work with speed, loyalty and safety, without negligence or fault, and without delay except in case of illness. The contract price was 9 pieces of gold, 80 measures of grain, 24 measures of wine, etc., with the gold paid in advance. Failure to perform was to be penalized to the extent of double the amount of the advance payment. On the other hand, if the merchant cancelled the agreement before the end of the year (without just cause); the service that had actually been completed was to be paid for at double the agreed rate.

Egyptian history through the thousand years or so of the Byzantine Period is somewhat vague, and the writer has not been able to find much comment on postal matters. However, based on their efficiency in other matters, it could be assumed that postal routes and methods were generally comparable to those of Southern Europe. 

Ottoman Influence

Egypt became a part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517. Under the Turkish theory, at the time, that good roads and transit facilities permitted quick movement of armies and logistics, and therefore invited invasion by enemies, the existing post routes and system fell gradually into disuse. This chaotic condition prevailed up to the rule of Mehemet Ali (1805-1848), who as the rejuvenator of Egypt, disagreed with the old theories, reconstructed the old routes, and organized good communication facilities as a means for strong centralization of government control. His postal system was operated solely for the benefit of the government and, therefore, comprised only messenger routes between the capital and the chief places in the provinces. These routes were covered by footmen traveling in relay. Northern Egypt had daily services in order that the central government could be informed promptly as to what was happening in the most important parts of the country. Correspondence from Alexandria was delivered to Cairo in 24 hours. Routes in Central Egypt were covered once a week, and in Southern Egypt once a month. After the conquest of the Sudan in 1821, the postal service was extended to Khartoum, and from there the mail was transferred further on the backs of dromedaries. (A word about the dromedaries is appropriate here: Dispatch by dromedaries should not be confused with those on camels. The difference is like the difference between express and freight. The camel is the slow clumsy beast of burden of the caravan, which can only to jog along at two to three miles per hour under a 600-pound load. The dromedary, on the other hand, is the thoroughbred race horse of the camel family. It has been used for centuries by Arabs for war and courier services. This animal's pace is eight to nine miles an hour with rider and mail bags, and 100 miles a day imposes no hardship.) Still, it is known that a letter from Cairo took 50 days to reach Khartoum. Though the state post was not fast, it was at least regular.

Sadly, no postal service for the public existed. A citizen desiring to send a letter to a province, therefore, had to use a special messenger at his own expense. The chief of the government postal service, however, was always available for reliable advice at reasonable cost. Thus, what was entrusted to the messenger was sure to arrive at the destination. A little later the government did establish a private postal service to most places in the country. However, this was slow and at widely varying postage charges.

At about the same time, European Post Correspondence from and to Europe was handled through the foreign consuls, ship captains and later through various foreign post offices that were established and allowed to operate on Egyptian soil. Russia, Austria, England, France, Greece and Italy founded such offices at various dates between 1831 and 1867. With the exception of the French offices at Alexandria and Port Said, which operated until 1931, these foreign offices were all suppressed between the years 1875 and 1889, when domestic service had been developed to meet the needs.

Prior to the opening of the foreign offices, many private letters from Europe arrived at Alexandria in the official mail sacks of the foreign consuls, who undertook the distribution. These men never took to this work willingly, and understandably so, as the task was constantly increasing in proportion to the steady increase in foreign population. In 1821, an enterprising Italian, Carlo Meratti, opened private post offices at Alexandria and Cairo for handling European-Egyptian correspondence. For a modest fee he put outgoing letters on board ships, and also received the incoming foreign mail from the ship captains and undertook distribution in the two cities. Upon Meratti's death, the business was inherited by his nephew, Tito Chini and his associate and friend Giaeomo Muzzi of Bologne. The latter, apparently a very aggressive businessman, quickly expanded Meratti's small post and built up a strong institution which was named the Posta Europa (European Post). This system enjoyed public confidence and, when more offices were opened in other localities where commerce flourished, took most of the business away from the corresponding Egyptian government offices. Finally, ironically enough, even the government used the Posta Europa and closed its own competing post offices. The river service of the private post was so speedy that once when the Prince of Wales was ascending the Nile, letters by the post reached him before those carried on his own fast mail boat.

Later, when Egypt introduced the first railways into Africa, the Posta Europa promptly opened more and more new offices on the railway routes as they expanded. In 1856 they secured a 5-year monopoly for handling the mail between Alexandria and Cairo. The work was done so well that in 1862 the monopoly was extended for another ten years. The Posta Europa was then accorded free transit for its mail sacks, on the government railway, and in return transmitted the authorized government correspondence without charge. 
Development of the Domestic Post

Upon the beginning of the second contract, the government almost completely suppressed its own postal service, and the Posta Europa assumed a task which was so big that it could not be handled even with its very efficient staff. An appeal was therefore made to the Postmaster General of Italy for help in reorganizing the Egyptian service along the lines of that of Italy. In response to the appeal, a young Italian official, who had made a systematic study of the postal institutions of Europe, arrived in Egypt. Through him the Posta Europa obtained the able assistance it needed.

Meanwhile, Chini was killed in an accident in 1864, and his partner Muzzi became sole proprietor of the private Egyptian post. At that time it had twenty flourishing offices and was preferred by the public even for transporting money. Ismail Pasha, who was extremely progressive in state improvement, had then become Khedive, and realized the possibility of this great postal system. Although the monopoly had eight years yet to run, Ismail decided to buy it out at once and at any price. A French banker affected the deal for 920,000 francs. 

Muzzi then intended to cease all work and quit the country, but when offered the title of Bey and the position of Postmaster General of Egypt, he accepted the post, apparently in the interest of his colleagues and because he had learned to love his work. Therefore when the transfer was made, Giaeomo Muzzi, as proprietor, turned the postal system over to himself as Muzzi Bey, Postmaster General. The postal system then became a strict government monopoly. A law was passed to ensure that every messenger, caravan, foreman and river worker arriving or traveling in Egyptian territory had to deposit his mail in a government post office. Transportation companies and their agents were watched to make sure that the law was obeyed.

At the beginning the new and efficient government venture functioned under the Minister of Public Travel, then under the General Bureau of Finances. Later it came under the President of the Council of Ministers. King Fouad found the post office department under the divided authority of different administrative branches; with some parts of the postal work handled entirely independent of others. In 1919 he unified the system under a Minister of Communications. This system is still in place and the minister now supervises the posts, railways, telegraphs, telephones, river and port navigation, mechanical transport and civil aviation.

Trans-Egyptian Routes

Egypt, through an interesting sequence of steps, has enjoyed the distinction of being the principal communication route between Europe on one side and India, East Africa and the Far East on the other. Europe in Biblical and other ancient days kept in touch with the Orient through Syria and Persia, and the geography of the books of Genesis and the Chronicles is the geography of this route. The ascendancy of Muslim power in the 15th Century closed the overland trails. After this, ships passing around the Cape of Good Hope, afforded the only means of communication. There rose a need for a shorter, quicker route and this focused attention on the Red Sea. The East India Company with a century-and-a-half of sacrifice and failure, patiently secured control of much of this route, and the ships of this company plying between India and Suez originated the service which brought Egypt into the relations between England and the Orient.

In 1833, an Englishman, Lieutenant Thomas Waghorn, launched an enterprise for transporting mail across Egypt to the Red Sea. For his inaugural trip, he informed London merchants of his intention of starting from London, going by postal steamer from Falmouth to Malta and from there to Alexandria and across Egypt to Suez. From there, he intended to embark for Bombay via the Red Sea. Waghorn proposed to return to England the same year and by the same route, and make the round trip regularly after that. He anticipated to take a trip of 70 days the trip each way, and charged a minimum fee of 5 shillings each for mail items.

The first important contract for transmission of European-Oriental mail through Egypt was made between the British Admiralty and the Peninsular & Oriental Company in 1837, with part of the route covered by steamers on the River Nile.

The first regular postal service through Egypt as part of the Southampton-Calcutta route commenced in 1842, and only those who made the trip between Alexandria and Suez will ever realize the hardships encountered between these cities. The journey and the means used were complicated. On reaching Alexandria, camels or donkeys were employed for two miles, after which the 50 miles to the River Nile had to be traveled through the canals of the Mahmudiya River, in a flat open boat towed at the 'lively' speed of 5 miles per hour. Upon the arrival at Atfeh on the Nile, a steamer trip of 120 miles up-stream took the traveler, in 16 hours, to Bulak, across from Cairo. From Bulak to Suez, 95 miles of desert, had to be crossed in six-passenger wagons, each drawn by four horses or mules. Transportation of mail and freight was always more difficult than that of passengers, especially between Bulak and Suez, where every package had to travel on the backs of camels. Thousands of camels were used in constant service between the Nile and the various desert stations. As a protection against the extreme humidity at the more southerly points, the mail was carried in sealed sheet-metal boxes which were of about 2-foot length, 1-ft. width and 18-inch depth. Solder was used for sealing. This was because any ordinary sealing compound would have melted from the heat.

The time taken to travel the 267 miles from Alexandria to Suez was estimated to be about 64 hours - an average of four miles per hour. Furthermore, because time was usually lost along the route, the complete trip took three or four days. In addition there was a 24 hour delay between the arrival and departure at Suez of the steamer bound for India. On the Mahmudiya River canal boats, everything was tumbled onto the single flat deck and exposed to the blistering sun. So narrow were the canals that when another boat was encountered going in the opposite direction, the boat could pass only by hoisting its tow rope over the other. The steamers on the Nile were small, drew only a few inches of water and had little power. This caused them to often get stuck in the mud. As a result of the various delays the stop at Bulak for "a night's rest" was sometimes cut down to less than two hours. 

Although the actual running time on the desert stretch was only 10 hours, the schedule called for 18, because of the stops at six or seven stations for changing animals. A small detachment of the pasha's non-descript cavalry accompanied the mail for safety. In addition, the postal attendants and all travelers were well armed and dressed like robbers in order to deceive and command greater respect from the real robbers who often sprang up from nowhere and showed no mercy to their victims. When bands of treacherous Bedouins were known to be in the vicinity, night travel had to be abandoned in favor of a safer stop at a station.

On the northward trip, travelers reaching Alexandria in the evening were out of luck. The gates of the city were locked for the night at sunset, and the only place available for rest was some "tom-tom" joint or other resort. Apparently these were outside the city because they were 'wild' and were not tolerated within the city walls.

In an attempt to make improvements, Mehemet Ali, in 1846, put the Trans-Egyptian route under control of a Transit Administration. The first railway was in service part of the way between Alexandria and Cairo in 1855, and on completion to Cairo the mail trunks from the North Coast went there by rail, and from Cairo to Suez by dromedaries The railway extension was completed to Suez in 1858, and ten years later a new line from Zagaziz to Suez greatly shortened the trip because of the abandonment of the more southerly route via Cairo. 
The Suez Canal

The Suez Canal, with 66 miles of Canal and 21 miles of lake route, was opened to navigation in 1869, and 68 vessels went through in the first squadron. As could be expected, most of the mail between Europe and the Orient was immediately switched to the canal, and British mail increased so much in volume that the more important ships were equipped with sea post offices having sorting facilities on board.

The opening of the Suez Canal cut the time from London to India to 16 days, in contrast to the four months at when ships when around the Cape of Good Hope. An efficient foreign exchange post office recently established at Port Tewfik now received much of the unsorted mail from Europe and Asia Minor, and sorted it up into bags for India, the Far East and Australia. This office was located on the edge of the canal, where the steamers could be seen from the windows and the mail put on board as a ship passed.

Present Postal Activities

Egypt's activities at the cross-roads of the international posts have served as an inspiration for her to make her domestic postal system superior. Today her people are served by every modern improvement available. Postal cars traveling over 2,000 miles of railways are supplemented by an elaborate river steamer, automobile and motorcycle system. Furthermore, airplanes co-operating with foreign air and steamship lines help to keep the mail moving at a fast rate. A special quick-delivery letter service has proven very helpful to the public, and foreign mail now leaves not less than twice a day in comparison with the former service when it left three or four times a week. Since the closing of the French post offices in Alexandria and Port Said in 1931, all postal activities on Egyptian soil are under complete supervision of the Egyptian government. About 4,600 post offices of six classes meet the needs of communities from the largest to the smallest, and the money order department provides postal savings facilities to millions of depositors. The postal employees are men of excellent character and the high ranking ones are graduates of postal training and commercial schools.

Still, Polyglot population and peculiar physical handicaps give the Egyptian postal department some difficult problems. Arabians, Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Indians, French, English and Italians are there in substantial numbers and these, with a few other nationalities, converse and correspond largely in their own languages. The postman therefore receives and delivers letters addressed in all kinds of languages. He needs to be able to speak at least four languages, and should also know how to conduct himself respectfully toward the members of different religions. Then there is the difficulty of covering the routes. Most of the populous cities stretch for hundreds of miles along the Nile River, which at some places and times is too shallow and at others flooded. It also changes its borders at different times of the year, making even ferries impractical. The floods are so bad that they often turn much land into seas. The narrow roads, built upon soft porous earth and extending barely above water level, become too soggy for travel. Away from the river section, lots of the area is pathless desert. For long stretches here, the mail has to be carried through soft wearying sands at best. In times of storm, hot winds parch the skin and drifting sand blinds the eyes and cause to be invisible the few guiding landmarks. To all this is added the danger of accident and the occasional attacks by outlaws.

Egypt did not start using postage stamps until its then overlord, the Sultan of Turkey, set the example. Also following Turkey, Egypt made its first stamps, in 1866; conform to the laws of the Koran (the Holy Book) which forbade images of living things or scenic views. It took another eighteen months before the original arabesque designs were replaced with the sphinx, pyramids, Cleopatra's needle, Pompey's Pillar and other symbols of Egypt's past glory. All the postage stamps are now printed by the government, and possibly due to the intense interest of Egyptian kings (including King Fouad) in the hobby of stamp collecting. Recent Egyptian stamp issues are among the handsomest in the world.

The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

The Egyptian Sudan has always had a good postal record. Before the Mahdi uprising, mail was received at two main stations from Egypt and about twice a week was carried to the various cities by a government contractor, who employed carriers mounted on dromedaries protected by guards armed with spears and a rifle and equipped with saddle bags. These are portrayed on the postage stamps.

The mails which traveled by steamer could not be altogether punctual, as river conditions varied, but the punctuality of those traveling by dromedary was remarkable. The dromedaries were worked in relay, with fresh mounts always ready at the next station. The contractor was held accountable for safe and timely arrival, and was heavily fined if any irregularity, within his control, could be proven. Slatin Pasha once wrote: "I was astonished at the exactness of the arrival of the mail, but became so accustomed to it, that I found fault if there was now and then delay of a few hours in the delivery of letters."

In 1896 the Sudan was re-conquered by an Anglo-Egyptian army. While military operations were in progress, postage stamps for mail to Egypt were at times unavailable. When this happened, letters were franked with signatures of responsible officers. Among the succeeding issues of postage stamps one was watermarked with a Maltese cross. The symbol was detected by the keen eyes of some of the Muslims and misinterpreted. The British, quick to satisfy native needs, immediately changed the watermark to a star and crescent.