My son borrowed this book from the school library and loved it so much we're buying it.

The authors brought out a different side to Cleopatra and portrayed her as the brilliant, intelligent and beautiful women she was. With the use of her power she planned on joining the world under her Egyptian rule. It is full of information, yet it has a natural flow and easy to follow. It has a number of stories within the story telling her enjoyful, tragic life. It starts off with giving some information on her family background and slowing moving into her reighning years as Queen of Egypt. It also mentions her personal love life as well as family members, but not too in detail just enough to give you some kind of idea on her values and strength as a women. There are beautiful illustrations on each page that show you her lifestyle and her riches as a powerful Queen who was loved by many people. The language usage is easily understood and one doesn't seem to get lost in the text. It also has plenty of other useful information on other historical people and events that occured during her life time. This biography of Cleopatra is full of life and is sure to educate children. It is great for readers who are first learning of Cleopatra and the Egyptian form of ruling. Finally there is a great bibliography which could also be very helpful when researching a little bit further on this courageous and charmful ruler.

The Cobra and the Lily by Sheri Cobb South is a sweeping, emotional romance set in Biblical times. Ra-Met, an Egyptian nobleman sets his heart upon a slave girl with a beautiful voice, yet she is committed to her faith in God. Yet when word that God will send the Angel of Death to take the firstborn children of all who do not have the blood of a lamb over their door, Ra-Met himself is in danger as an only child. The Cobra And The Lily is a compelling and recommended tale of love, spiritual devotion, sacrifice and redemption.

What a lovely story! Passionately romantic without gratuitous sex, inspiring but never preachy, THE COBRA AND THE LILY is just the ticket for Christian women, Jewish women, or anyone who enjoys an engaging love story set against a richly detailed historical background.

Exhaustive, complete, and clear-eyed. This is the one for an excellent overview of all the conflicting theories concerning the Sea Peoples and the collapse of the region's civilizations. Robbins has no axe to grind, and no simple answers, but follows the evidence to his conclusions, rather than trying to squeeze facts so they fit into a preconceived idea.

Although this is a history book with lots of names and dates,it is written in a flowing style and comes together nicely. There is no stilted language here. Combing through a massive amount of research material, Robbins has consolidated the information. He then makes educated conclusions about the events leading up to the collapse of mighty civilizations such as Troy, Egypt, Greece, the Hittites and others. People tend to think the Bronze Age ended when the ancients developed hotter fires and iron could be smelted, resulting in better tools or weapons. Wrong! There were cataclysmic internal and external forces working on the civilizations, resulting in their demise or diminution. Humor is sprinkled throughout the book, enhancing the pleasure of reading it. Some of the author's conclusions such as the reasons for the decline of Mycenaean Greece and the origin of the people of Israel are controversial or even counter to some current beliefs. However these conclusions are so well reasoned that they are difficult to dispute. Combining fragmentary written historical accounts,archaeological artifacts, language analysis, myths/legends, oral transmission of history, and other methods Robbins has written a fascinating account.

This book was written as an accompanying extract to a British Museum exhibit celebrating the bicentenary of its discovery, and accurately presents the important Rosetta Stone. This is achieved by means of outlining the Stone's history, controversy around its discovery and its deciphering which gave the key to understanding the hieroglyphs. Using this as his starting point, the author continues to explore the role, power and importance of writing in Ancient Egypt as well as its many aspects (such as scribes and the tools used) and its relation to art. Other decipherments (Linear B and Meroitic) are also considered in this book. Readable, enjoyable and very informative, accompanied by black & white illustrations, it is recommended for anyone interested in the Ancient Egyptian language.

For those expecting to receive a high quality catalogue of the British Museum's Rosetta Stone exhibition, you will not be disappointed. But as an added bonus, the essays are not pedantic and dull, but eloquent and informative. They detail not only the finding of the stone and its impact on Egyptology, but also include chapters on the development of the Ancient Egyptian language, the scripts, tools used to write, and the ways in which these reflect the Egyptian world view.

Richard Parkinson's writing style makes this a joy to read! I would recommend it not only to those interested in the exhibit (the photos are of excellent quality), but those interested in Ancient Egyptian language and Egypt in general.

I have loved traveling to Egypt for years and have devoured everything decent I can find to read about this country and its people. If you want to understand the Egyptians this volume is one good place to start.

This is the second edition of one of the finest summations of ancient Egyptian civilization ever written for the general reader. Not only is this an exellent introduction to many aspects of Egypt, it is a visual delight. The maps, especially, configure in the reader's mind spacial relationships and their cultural implications. Other illustrations of temple precincts and related architectural elements of Egyptian life supplement the excellent writing, written for, but never "down to" non-specialists. If I were to own only one reference work on ancient Egypt, this would be the one.

As both an Egyptologist and student of the Egyptian religion, I found this book a welcome addition to my library as well. By presenting the "gods" as a family and writing the book as if they were studying a group or tribe of everyday mortals, much information is gleaned about the structure and organization of Egyptian religion and its expression that can be missed in more lofty, philosophically or theologically-oriented texts. Where else can you read about the bodily functions of a divinity? Bravo to the Meeks' for adding a "foundation level" to our understanding of this most beautiful faith structure.

I am an Egyptologist, and I have read the manuscript of the English translation. This book is filled with a wealth of details missing from the other general books on Egyptian religion. It is my opinion that those wishing to read just one book on this subject will now have to read two: one of the other books, and this one

Like Helen Keller, Taha Hussain overcame the challenges of his blindness to be an inspiration to everyone who knew him. Born in 1889 in a small village in Egypt, the 7th of 13 children, and blinded in his early childhood by a mistake of the local barber (and village surgeon!), one would expect Taha Hussein to become just another statistic. Instead, his brilliant mind led him to receive the highest levels of education in Egypt, followed by a PhD from the Sorbonne University in France, and achieve wide recognition and honors as a writer, faculty member, dean, minister of education, and a Nobel prize nominee in literature. There are few human beings who overcome adversity of such magnitude. Taha Hussein's autobiography is unique and sometimes controversial, but certainly an inspiration to anyone who reads it. This edition, which includes all 3 parts of his biography now joined in one book, is well worth it and a must read.

This is a must read for those interested in Egypt and Egyptian culture. It is an absolute classic, wonderfully written and well translated. The story of a poor blind boy with incomparable talent and motivation, It is also a beautiful love story, cross cultural marriage, conflict between civilizations and the push and pull between the sacred and the secular. Taha Hussien rose from very poor and humble origin to the heights of Egyptian society.

Each of the three parts of this book was translated by a different person, as a result it takes a bit of time to get adjusted to the new style as well as a new phase of the life of Taha Hussien.

The first part of the book, specially with the third person style can get a bit tedious but if you perceiver through that you will get the double reward of enjoying the book and learning more about this truly unique man.

Edited and with an informative introduction by Jason Thompson, Description Of Egypt: Notes And Views In Egypt And Nubia Made During The Years 1825-28 is the absorbing nineteenth century account by Edward William Lane (1801-1876) of his travels along the length and breadth of Egypt. It was offered for publication in 1831 but never saw print. The manuscript was sold to the British Library by Lane's widow in 1891 and only now has been published, some 170 years after its completion. With Lane's detailed descriptions of all the ancient monuments and contemporary life that he saw during his journey, Description Of Egypt will proof an invaluable reference for students of Egyptology, Egyptian history, and nineteenth century Egyptian culture.

The re-edition of E.W. Lane's book is one of the most welcomed additions for the bookshelves of anyone interested in ancient and late last-century Egypt. This book, in reality, was originally published after the notes, drawings and photographs made by Lane during his journey to the Nile country between 1825-27, so that it is a mine of information about the pharaonic monuments in general and about Egypt during those years. A clear and finely written preface by the Editor, Dr. J. Thompson introduces the reader to the beautifully printed text and images; it should be noted that many of the latter were made with a camera lucida and count among the first taken with such a system. One should not be afraid by its bulky aspect: you will read from start to end without boring. The shcolarly-minded ones will regret the lack of indexes to such a huge volume: it implies that you must do the work by yourself... Simply fabulous both for the Egyptologists and the Egyptomaniacs.

When approaching this book, one might ask why they should read a book so old on such a fluid subject. When you think of the amount of current research being done on the development of Egyptian culture, reading a book 90 years old may seem meaningless. What the book suffers from an obvious lack of modernity, it makes up with it by presenting one of the best studies of Egyptian religion ever written.

Awe still comes to those who stare at the Great Pyramids. How could ancient man, with few tools or equipment build such structures? And, the even bigger question, why? Why would so much be used to build a structure designed for the dead? It is a very good question, and Breasted was one of the first to really offer some clear explanations. Breasted's history is massive in its scope, his written lectures taking you from the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt to the waning days of the New Kingdom. Reading this work gives such a clear and concise answer to so many questions. We learn how Egyptian religion changed, how their view of their pharaohs and their gods developed over centuries. We see the Warrior Kings, the Shepard Kings, the origins of the Judeo Christian ethic, and the mysterious figure of Akhenaten.

The only problem I would have with this book is that in this edition, some of the source material Breasted uses is really mixed in with the actual writing, so as to make it kind of confusing. Still, that is a minor complaint. Breasted is probably the greatest American Orientalist, and his work opened up that field of studies in the United States. If you want to get a grasp on his genius, read this work, it will forever change the way you look at Egypt and ourselves today.

The author, founder of the Oriental Institute in Chicago, opened the doors to all subsequent studies in ancient religion. This is a classic, to be read before anything else on the subject of ancient Egyptian religion. The author describes how the Egyptians developed at an early date a sense of the moral unworthiness of man and a consciousness of deep-seated moral obligation. This is a deep work into the minds of the Ancient Egyptians.

This book is the only book that I relied on for my Egyptian report. It had everything that you need for a report on legacies. Other books focus on pyramids, mummies, and legacies. Your book was only one topic. I have seen your other books, and they are the same way. Organization is perfect. Worth Every Penny.

This wonderful basic book on discoveries and inventions of Ancient Egypt provides brief descriptions of the Ancient Egyptian control of water, light and people; it explains their health, cleanliness, mathematics, decoration, clothing, hieroglyphs and animals. A short glossary is made available. Recommended for youngsters, ages 6 to 10.