A group of seventy-six persons in 1912 at Easter set out on a tour of Egypt with Ludwig Koessler, the president of the Urania - a tour operator in Vienna. The tremendous success of this initial tour made such guided tours into a tradition for Vienna’s educated class and other participants from all parts of the Habsburg Empire eager to see the world outside fo Europe. Austria’s somewhat lesser known involvement in Egypt and the contemporary impression of the Orient is examined in the "Urania Travels to Egypt - In Competent Hands" exhibition (until June 3rd, 2013). Travel itinerary from Vienna to Egypt begins at Wiener Südbahnhof on the south-bound railway to Trieste. Then the North German Llyod Steamship Company carried off the tour groups to the port of Alexandria for further destinations to Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan. The exhibition also provides insight into what at that time was considered suitable dress for such a journey and the typical souvenirs brought back from the land on the Nile. Images courtesy: Weltmuseum, Kunsthistorischesmuseum, Vienna.