European tourists traveled to Egypt partly to visit Mehmed Ali by the 1820s

Evidence

For their part, these visitors were interested in meeting the famous Pasha who had been vali of Egypt since 1805, making him one of the longest serving provincial governors in the Ottoman Empire. These tourists, who would mostly be visiting Egypt as part of a longer trip that included a visit to the Holy Land, would typically disembark in Alexandria, sail down the newly dug Maḥmūdiyya Canal linking the port city to the Nile, and from there proceed all the way to Cairo. While visiting that most colorful of cities, they would make a point to visit the Pasha himself, who already by the 1820s had become “one of the curiosities of Egypt” owing to the reforms he had introduced in Egypt and his efforts in making the country safer for tourists. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 46