I Followed the World's Oldest Treasure Map into the Egyptian Desert

In a museum in Italy there's a sheet of cracked papyrus that is, as far as anyone knows, the oldest surviving map on Earth. Written by an Egyptian scribe over 3,000 years ago, it leads into Egypt’s Eastern Desert -- a dangerous landscape of lost mines, abandoned cities, and a legendary place whose location was forgotten for centuries. But the edges of the papyrus are missing — and so is the end of the story.

So I decided to follow it.

My journey takes me from the temples and tombs of ancient Egypt into Wadi Hammamat, across military checkpoints, and deep into one of the most remote regions of the Sahara. Along the way, I trace the history of pharaohs, Roman miners, Victorian explorers and tomb robbers, chasing the legend of a treasure tied to Cleopatra and a place once thought lost to history.

What begins as an attempt to follow an ancient map becomes a journey through 3,000 years of obsession: gold, emeralds, exploration, archaeology, and the strange human need to find what has been lost.

This is the story of the world’s oldest treasure map — and what still remains at the end of it.

Want more content? Support Backpackology on Patreon: / backpackology
I’ve just launched the Patreon, so consider this the soft opening. I’m still moving the furniture in. Over the next few days I’ll be adding behind-the-scenes videos, updates from the road, research and early ideas from upcoming adventures, deleted/extra material, and stories from the original Backpackology archives. If you want to go a little deeper into these films — and help me make more of them — come let me show you the other side of the map.

Want to visit the eastern desert? You can hire Hamada via his Facebook page:
/ 19uctfxpml

Huge thanks to:
The Egypt Papyrus Institute
3 Pyramids Papyrus Institute
King Ali Papyrus Shop (Giza)
Skyline Balloons (Luxor)
Maxim Nile (Cairo)