The Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE) was founded in 1997 following two successful international conferences on travellers in Egypt and the Near East at the University of Durham and the University of Oxford.
Our area of study is Egypt and the Sudan, the Arabian Peninsula and northwards through Iraq to Turkey, Greece and the Ottoman Balkans, from the earliest times to the mid-20th century.
ASTENE's activities include the publication of a quarterly Bulletin about travellers, exhibitions, conferences, study days and other events throughout the world. ASTENE holds biennial conferences and has published several books of conference papers. We organise regular events and trips for members, and in recent years we have organised tours to Cairo, Cyprus, Sinai, Syria and Albania.
We welcome as members anyone with an interest in and knowledge of our area of study – academics, students and others – and we have members in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Near East, North America and Australia.
