Egypt Books

Egypt (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

DK Publishing

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Subjects -> Travel -> Africa -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Limited Detailed Information 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not a bad guide, decent overview of all the sites and also cultural aspects of Egypt. My major complaint is that the maps are terrible. There is only one actual map, and it is only of Cairo (East of the Nile). So if you're staying in Giza (Cairo west of the Nile) you are kind of out of luck. Additionally there are loads of restaurants listed, but if they don't happen to be in Cairo then they will be no map of the location. If you're considering eating out, or doing anthing without a guide then you will need an additional guide book.

Next best thing to being there 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

As a future traveler to Egypt, any information about traveling there is appreciated. With Eyewitness Travel Egypt, almost every topic I need to know is there. This book discusses the history, the various districts in Cairo, the pyramids, the cruises, hotels, beaches, and facts that you might need to know, but don't know to ask.

The detail is remarkable. The best section that I found for practicality was the 'Survival Guide'. As westerners we assume way too much, so this bit was very welcome.

[...]

Egyptology

Ian Andrew, Dugald Steer

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Fiction -> Ancient Civilizations

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 53 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A new discovery from the publishers of DRAGONOLOGY!

Discover the wonders of ancient Egypt through a fascinating journal from a lost expedition - a treasure trove of fact and fantasy featuring a novelty element on every spread.

Here are just a few of EYGPTOLOGY's special features:

1) an extravagantly gilded cover, featuring a raised Horus hawk pendant with three encrusted gems

2) a playable game of Senet(ancient Egyptian checkers) including playing board, pieces, original-style dice, and rules

3) a souvenir booklet showing how to read simple hieroglyphs

4) a scrap of "mummy cloth"

5) a facsimile of the gilded mummy mask of King Tut

6) a gilded eye-of-Horus amulet with a "jewel"

7) fold-out maps

8) drawings and photographs

9) period postcards

10) a letter from the former Keeper of Antiquities at the British Museum, explaining which parts of this unique tale may be accepted as fact, which are guided by legend, and which reflect the author's delightful sense of fancy.

Egypt (Country Guide)

Matthew Firestone, Rafael Wlodarski, Anthony Sattin, Zora O'Neill

Amazon Price: $16.49 List Price: $24.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Lonely Planet Amazon Marketplace: 34 new & used starting at $14.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

oldie but goodie? 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

couldn't get the newest edition before i left for egypt. some of the prices in here might be off. general sites and advice - excellent! added advice: any sites in luxor, go either really early or really late. ignore the people. for kahn el-kahlili in cairo, to get rid of peddlers, just keep walking. they won't follow you past the area in front of their store because it's the next store's territory.

Editorial Review:

Discover Egypt

Find a Cairo coffeehouse to suit your own style; unwind, chat and inhale deeply over a sheesha
Forget hot springs: try a hot sand bath in the middle of the desert
Take belly-dancing lessons from the most famous teacher in Egypt
Relax in the soft light of early morning on a Nile cruise

In This Guide:

Five authors, 295 days of research, hundreds of touts and a week-long scuba course
Special chapter on cruising the Nile: choose from timeless feluccas and splendid dahabiyyas, the Rolls Royce of their era
Illustrated Pharaonic Egypt chapter by world-renowned Egyptologist Dr Joann Fletcher brings the ancient rulers to life

In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler's Tale

Amitav Ghosh

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Enjoyed immensely-have lived in the area 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I enjoyed this book immensely as I have lived and researched in the Kanara Coast of India where a main character in the book spends a great deal of his life and where there have been from early times trade relations with the Middle East. Although I have not researched in the Egypt I can relate to many research experiences of the author. It was a real treat for me. Martha B. Ashton-Sikora

Man in the Middle-East 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

If National Geographic stories reconstructing a stone-age human from its fossilized remains dug out of the ashes of a volcano (such as in physical anthropology) fail to engage your fascination, chances are that this story will seem more academic to you than the home work assignment to watch History Channel. I am one such history-averse person and the book was too slow to start. However, I finished it with a renewed respect for social anthropology and its relevance to the world we live in. The way a story of a 12th century Egyptian trader can be relevant to the social, cultural, political and business of our times is hard to ignore and not take heed of. Besides, it is fascinating to learn how a small set of information sources with varying degrees of reliability can be connected like dots that reveal the story of a 800 year old human life in all its aspects.

Some of the revelations in the book that left me agape were: the rich history of trade between Indian and Egypt that made a lasting impact on the evolution of both countries and her peoples; the complex way in which the social temper and cultural identity of a country are entrenched in religion, thus making religion the primary tool for governing powers to achieve political and business goals in ways that are irreversibly divisive; the power of a united few with a disruptive agenda over the divided many with a peaceful one.

Apparently, this book is part of the course reading for anthropology students at UC, Santa Cruz (and possibly many other universities worldwide), as I found out from a student sitting next to me in the plane. However, Amitav Ghosh's extensive research goes beyond anthropology and throws light on relevant topics of today such as Iraq & the Middle East, the cultural divide between Jewish, Muslims, Christians and Hindus, the Indian identity, and the massive social changes that conservative rural Muslims are grappling with.

Editorial Review:

As he searches for information about the life of an Indian slave in twelfth-century Egypt, the author, a Hindu, comes face to face with the Muslim world and culture of modern Egypt, in a narrative that juxtaposes ancient history and modern travelogue.

Frommer's Egypt

Matthew Carrington

Amazon Price: $16.49 List Price: $24.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Frommers Amazon Marketplace: 51 new & used starting at $13.36

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Editorial Review:

America’s #1 bestselling travel series

Written by more than 175 outspoken travelers around the globe, Frommer’s Complete Guides help travelers experience places the way locals do.

• More annually updated guides than any other series

• 16-page color section and foldout map in all annual guides

• Outspoken opinions, exact prices, and suggested itineraries

• Dozens of detailed maps in an easy-to-read, two-color design

* In 2006, the number of visitors reached an all-time high of 9.1 million, a 5.5% increase from 2005, and the Egyptian Tourism Authority aims to increase visitors to 16 million by 2014
* More than 228,000 Americans visited Egypt in 2006, a 16% increase over prior year
* The U.S. ranks fourth in visitors to Egypt, while the U.K. is #1 with more than 1 million visitors in 2006
* Travel + Leisure featured Alexandria in their January 2007 "Where to Go Next" section
* Guide features an English-Arabic language glossary, plus an "Active Vacation Planner" that details the best places to go for sailing, diving, climbing, biking, and more

Egypt - Culture Smart!: a quick guide to customs and etiquette

Jailan Zayan

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Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> Egypt
Subjects -> Reference -> Etiquette -> General
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Culture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs and behavior in different countries, ensuring that you arrive at your destination aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. These concise guides tell you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. This inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships.

Culture Smart! offers illuminating insights into the culture and society of a particular country. It will help you to turn your visit-whether on business or for pleasure-into a memorable and enriching experience. Contents include


* customs, values, and traditions
* historical, religious, and political background
* life at home
* leisure, social, and cultural life
* eating and drinking
* do's, don'ts, and taboos
* business practices
* communication, spoken and unspoken


"Culture Smart has come to the rescue of hapless travellers." Sunday Times Travel

"... the perfect introduction to the weird, wonderful and downright odd quirks and customs of various countries." Global Travel

"...full of fascinating-as well as common-sense-tips to help you avoid embarrassing faux pas." Observer

"...as useful as they are entertaining." Easyjet Magazine

"...offer glimpses into the psyche of a faraway world." New York Times

Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff

Rosemary Mahoney

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

When Rosemary Mahoney, in 1998, took a solo trip down the Nile in a seven-foot rowboat, she discovered modern Egypt for herself. As a rower, she faced crocodiles and testy river currents; as a female, she confronted deeply-held beliefs about foreign women while cautiously remaining open to genuine friendship; and, as a traveler, she experienced events that ranged from the humorous to the hair-raising--including an encounter that began as one of the most frightening of her life and ended as an edifying and chastening lesson in human nature and cultural misunderstanding. Whether she's meeting Nubians and Egyptians, or finding connections to Westerners who traveled up the Nile in earlier times--Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert among them--Mahoney's informed curiosity about the world never ceases to captivate the reader.



"A pilgrimage about pilgrims and holy places that is not only enlightening but also very funny." -Paul Theroux (on The Singular Pilgrim)


"Mahoney is a wonderfully effective catalytic agent: she goes to Ireland and just makes the country happen around her." -Jonathan Raban (on Whoredom in Kimmage)

"Mahoney, who has been rowing for 10 year, brilliantly juxtaposes an account of her own palm-blistering hours on the Nile....with the diary entries of two Victorian travelers-Gustave Flaubert and Florence Nightingale."
--Lisa Fugard, New York Times Book Review

Egyptian Arabic Phrasebook

Siona Jenkins

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Lonely Planet Egyptian Arabic 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is a very well thought out and nicely organized book. Any student of Egyptian Arabic will like this phrasebook, and the illustrations inside of the book offer casual entertainment while the reader continues to learn Egyptian Arabic. I admit that I was disappointed to read that the author started to include sexual words and phrases, then backed out of doing it. It really would have been a lot of fun to learn how to say some of those things that were deleted from the final text.

Editorial Review:

Whether traversing the Nile or exploring Cairo's labyrinthine alley-ways, delve beneath the surface and discover the intriguing language and culture of Egypt. Confidently converse in Egyptian Arabic and ensure you don't miss out on the friendliness and humor for which Egyptians are famous. Enhance your travels throug this enticing country!

Our phrasebooks give you a comprehensive mix of practical and social words and phrases in more than 120 languages. Chat with the locals and discover their culture - a guaranteed way to enrich your travel experience.

The Rough Guide to Egypt 7 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

Dan Richardson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Not impressed 2 out of 5 stars.
18 of 18 people found this review helpful.

Let me mention a caveat before I go on to slate this guide. My trip was only to Cairo, and in the absence of any books at all that cover only Cairo, I used this guide which covers the whole country.

Where to start with my criticisms? Probably the maps. To say they were inadequate for Cairo would be a gross understatement. The city is complicated to navigate, and I would recommend that anyone travelling there and planning to spend time in the city itself should arm themselves with the best maps they can find. The ones in this book were absolutely awful. They bear little or no resemblence to what you actually find on the ground, the level of detail was wrong for any given situation (usually not detailed enough by a long way), they're badly organised (you end up fishing around for the next map you need as you're walking), and the only map that gives you an overview of the city is completely hopeless. The maps are also not contiguous, the gaps between the maps being just large enough to make long walks extremely difficult.

The next biggest problem for me was the advice on getting around. Before you arrive, the book appears to be particularly good on this subject, and was probably the main reason for my purchase since I was travelling alone and planning to arrange my own transport to the sights. Starting at the airport, their advice for finding a taxi was utterly useless. For getting to the various tourist sites, they appear to recommend the ubiquitous micro-buses used by commuters. Trying to use these is a joke, even for someone who took the trouble to learn some Arabic beforehand. The "signs" on the micro-buses are in Arabic, nobody on them speaks English, and when faced with roughly 100 of them in the bus station the situation is nothing short of hopeless. These are transportation strictly for locals, so don't waste your time trying, despite what the book might tell you. If you did ever manage to get on the right one, you'd be taking your life in your hands anyway. Why on earth would a guide book recommend this form of transport when a taxi can be hired for a whole day for around USD40?

Buy a book with more photos. It helps beforehand to identify the things you want to see, and they'll stick in your memory when you're actually there (I've previously used many other guidebooks with better photos). They also help a lot when you're lost or semi-lost (as I was most of the time when trying to navigate with the help of this guide).

The level of detail in the text was just plain wrong, wrong, wrong. It was ALWAYS either too much or not enough. Your choice is to spend a lot of time trawling through the prose before setting out and after that relying on your memory, or fishing through pages and pages of rubbish to glean what you need when you're actually on site.

A horrible guide book, don't buy it.

Editorial Review:

The Rough Guide to Egypt is your indispensable guide to the oldest tourist destination on earth. The full- colour introduction highlights ''what not to miss'', from jeep or camel safaris in the Western desert to the pyramids and Sphinx at Giza. This fully-updated 7th edition includes expanded coverage of Nile cruises and diving in the Red Sea and Mediterranean, as well as up-to-date coverage of Cairo, with accommodation and restaurants conveniently organised by district. The guide includes brand new “authors picks” section highlighting all the top places to eat, drink and stay to suit every budget and new colour sections on temples, Islamic architecture and reef flora and fauna. The guide also takes a comprehensive look at Egypt’s fascinating history and culture and comes complete with maps and plans for every area.

The Rough Guide to Egypt is like having a local friend plan your trip!

The Lost Boys of Sudan: An American Story of the Refugee Experience

Mark Bixler

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University of Georgia Press Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $11.50

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Travel
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> Egypt
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 2000 the United States began accepting 3,800 refugees from one of Africa's longest civil wars. They were just some of the thousands of young men, known as "Lost Boys," who had been orphaned or otherwise separated from their families in the chaos of a brutal conflict that has ravaged Sudan since 1983. The Lost Boys of Sudan focuses on four of these refugees. Theirs, however, is a typical story, one that repeated itself wherever the Lost Boys could be found across America. Jacob Magot, Peter Anyang, Daniel Khoch, and Marko Ayii were among 150 or so Lost Boys who were resettled in Atlanta. Like most of their fellow refugees, they had never before turned on a light switch, used a kitchen appliance, or ridden in a car or subway train-much less held a job or balanced a checkbook. We relive their early excitement and disorientation, their growing despondency over fruitless job searches, adjustments they faced upon finally entering the workforce, their experiences of post-9/11 xenophobia, and their undying dreams of acquiring an education.

As we immerse ourselves in the Lost Boys' daily lives, we also get to know the social services professionals and volunteers, celebrities, community leaders, and others who guided them-with occasional detours-toward self-sufficiency. Along the way author Mark Bixler looks closely at the ins and outs of U.S. refugee policy, the politics of international aid, the history of Sudan, and the radical Islamist underpinnings of its government. America is home to more foreign-born residents than ever before; the Lost Boys have repaid that gift in full through their example of unflagging resolve, hope, and faith.