This article deals with the descriptions of Egypt presented in the traveling accounts of the early 18th century. The paper includes several extracts from the little-known, for non-Russian readers notes of Vasil Grigorovich-Barsky, an Eastern orthodox pilgrim, here translated into English for the first time. As a comparison, the notes of his contemporary Paul Lucas, a French naturalist, who toured a major part of Egyptian territory seeking artifacts, are cited. Greater attention is devoted to Cleopatra’s needles, considering that both travelers admired and depicted those obelisks in their original setting in Alexandria.