Egypt Books

The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How One Man's Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt's Greatest Mystery

Bob Brier, Jean-pierre Houdin

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Nine years ago, French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin became obsessed by the centuries-old mystery of how the Great Pyramid was built. For ten hours a day, he labored at his computer to create exquisitely detailed 3-D models of the interior of the Great Pyramid. After five years of effort, the images rotating on his computer screen provided evidence of an astonishing secret. Corkscrewing up the inside of the Great Pyramid is a mile-long ramp, unseen for 4,500 years. The pyramid was built from the inside. This revelation casts a fresh light on the minds that conceived one of the wonders of the ancient world.

The Secret of the Great Pyramid moves between the ancient and the modern. The ancient story chronicles, step-by-step, how a nation of farmers only recently emerged from the Stone Age could construct one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. To execute something as complex and massive as the Great Pyramid, Egypt needed architects, mathematicians, boat builders, stone masons, and metallurgists. It took twenty years to build the Great Pyramid. By the time its capstone was laid in 2560 B.C., the innovations born of the building quest had transformed agrarian Egypt into the world's most modern, most powerful nation.

As we follow the progress of Hemienu, the innovative architect who planned, organized, and oversaw construction of the Great Pyramid, we also follow Houdin working to discover how and why the ancient architect designed the Pyramid as he did. Houdin works as a forensic architect, aiming to reconstruct the lessons Hemienu had learned from construction of three previous pyramids and to visualize his blueprint for the massive stone building. In the process, Houdin also discovers the answers to other questions that have bedeviled Egyptologists for centuries: such as what was the purpose of the mysterious Grand Gallery and when did the Pyramid crack? Along the way, Houdin receives the support of a pathbreaking French software company, which helps him validate his theory virtually—a first in archaeology!

The story of genius and obsession in the ancient and modern world, this archaeological mystery will appeal to anyone who has ever been captivated by this magnificent edifice.

The Stairway to Heaven: Book II of the Earth Chronicles (The Earth Chronicles)

Zecharia Sitchin

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Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Absolute must read 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Read it with all the Earth Cronicles written by Mr. Sitchin, is one of the best thing Ihave read in my life. For all of us interested in the origen of life and the history of our planet as well as the solar system, it has to much information and all are extremely important, that we have to read it many times. I love it!!!!

Editorial Review:

Since earliest times, human beings have pondered the incomprehensible questions of the universe, life . . . and the afterlife. Where did mortal man go to join the immortal Gods? Was the immense and complex structure at Giza an Egyptian Pharaoh's portal to immortality? Or a pulsating beacon built by extraterrestrials for landing on Earth?

In this second volume of his trailblazing series The Earth Chronicles, Zecharia Sitchin unveils secrets of the pyramids and hidden clues from ancient times to reveal a grand forgery on which established Egyptology is founded, and takes the reader to the Spaceport and Landing Place of the Anunnaki gods—"Those Who from Heaven to Earth Came."

Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt

Joyce Tyldesley

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Romans regarded her as “fatale monstrum”—a fatal omen. Pascal said the shape of her nose changed the history of the world. Shakespeare portrayed her as an icon of tragic love. But who was Cleopatra, really?

Cleopatra was the last ruler of the Macedonian dynasty of Ptolemies. Highly intelligent, she spoke many languages and was rumored to be the only Ptolemy to read and speak Egyptian. Her famous liaisons with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony had as much to do with politics as the heart. Ruthless in dealing with her enemies, many within her own family, Cleopatra steered her kingdom through difficult times, and very nearly succeeded in creating an eastern empire to rival the growing might of Rome.

Her story was well documented by her near contemporaries, and the tragic tale of contrasts and oppositions—the seductive but failing power of ancient Egypt versus the virile strength of modern Rome—is so familiar we almost feel that we know Cleopatra. But our picture is highly distorted. Cleopatra is often portrayed as a woman ruled by emotion rather than reason; a queen hurtling towards inevitable self-destruction. But these tales of seduction, intrigue, and suicide by asp have obfuscated Cleopatra’s true political genius.

Stripping away our preconceptions, many of them as old as Egypt’s Roman conquerors, Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley offers a magnificent biography of a most extraordinary queen.

The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality

Cheikh Anta Diop

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Total reviews: 97 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Don't hate us because we're Beautiful! 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Without a doubt the most critical and honest review of who the ancient Kemetians(Egyptians)were; Black Africans. This book should be on the shelf in every African-American home, as well as those in the Diaspora. It is the final stage in understanding who were are as a people. As the great Mr. Diop says:

"The oneness of KMT(Egypt)and black culture could not be stated more clearly. Because of this essential identity of genius, culture, and race, today all Negroes can legitimately trace their culture to ancient KMT(Egypt)and build a modern culture on that foundation. By this dynamic contact, the Negro will be convinced that these temples, these forests of columns, these pyramids, these colossi, these bas-reliefs, mathematics, medicine, and all the science, are indeed the work of his ancestors and that he has the right and a duty to claim this heritage."

Diop is no idiot proclaiming this fact just because it sounds good, every arguement that he makes is based upon meticulous research & FACTUAL evidence. Is it any wonder that Dr. John Henry Clarke, the scholar, fought for almost ten years to get his books published in the United States?

The recent King Tut exhibit that was on tour in the United States was a propoganda tour with it's fake euro-arab depiction of King Tut; The blacks that protested it got absolutely NO media coverage. Anyone with just a cursory knowledge of ancient Egypt knows King Tut could never have looked like that, his grandmother was a pure African Woman, Queen Tiye. (look it up and see for yourself)

Zawi Hawass is an idiot who was trained here in the U.S., in its overwhelmingly racist field of egyptology; run by people who find it hard to believe that this was an African civilization, even though the greeks and other ancients admit this fact wholeheartedly themselves in their writings.

It is even more sick that some would like to think that aliens from outer space built the pyramids... It is laughable that an Arab is the curator and spokesman for egypt antiquity when Arabs didn't invade & settle into the Holy land until around 640 AD.

The fact is that Egypt is and was founded by Black Africans and no amount of propoganda can hide this; at least to those of us who know the truth.

Editorial Review:

Now in its 30th printing, this classic presents historical, archaeological, and anthropological evidence to support the theory that ancient Egypt was a black civilization.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day - The Complete Papyrus of Ani Featuring Integrated Text and Full-Color Images

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Reprint of 1994, 1998 edition -- Word and Image together for the first time in 3500 years. 5 out of 5 stars.
23 of 23 people found this review helpful.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead

The Papyrus of Ani was painted in Egypt about 1250 BC. It represents the best preserved, longest, most ornate, and beautifully executed example of the form of Mortuary Text known as the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Ani was a well-to-do scribe (or accountant) within the Temple hierarchy who, as he approached middle age, decided it was time to order his personalized selection of the prayers and invocations designed as a guide to the Egyptian afterlife. Compiled from the oldest religious culture on earth, these spells (known as the Pyramid Texts) had originally been engraved on the walls of the tombs of kings or pharaohs). As time went on, they began to be more widely available, carved and painted on the wooden sarcophagi of great nobles (where they are known as Coffin texts). Finally, they became even more widely available, painted on scrolls and available to the upper middle class. Ani's papyrus measured 78 feet long by 15 inches high.

The prayers are connected to certain archetypal images. Thus an invocation to Osiris, the Lord of the Underworld, will be written within a painting (or vignette) of that deity. The meaning of the passage is a marriage of word and image, reaching well beyond the merely verbal level of the brain. One of the best known examples of these breathtaking unions of text and image is the Weighing of the Heart scene. Here, the heart (the moral integrity of the deceased, the conscience) is weighed against the feather of Truth and Justice. If the cumulative effects of the person's past have allowed his soul to be as light as the feather of Truth, he or she is judged pure and admitted to the presence of the Lord of the Dead in preparation for the journey through the Afterlife. However, if the person's heart is weighted down with the burden of sin, his soul is flung to the great monster who awaits the recording of the verdict and is no more.

As a magical, polytheistic religion, the Egyptian spiritual path was alive with creativity and energy. The spiritual dignity afforded the observant Egyptian was an invigorating state. One who had led an upright moral life, who had shown respect to the Gods, and, who had been strong enough to persevere through the awesome dangers of the path of the afterlife, was then invited to feast with his Gods, playing board games in beautiful fields, drinking beer and enjoying related pleasures, The successful adherent would reach a stellar glory of his own, at last a member of that hierarchy his life had been spent in honoring.

The impact of Ancient Egypt on modern western culture is of course ubiquitous. Egypt is known as the Mother of Western Civilization. The 42 part Negative Confession is a source of our own Ten Commandments. (The additional ancient statute against the bringing of law suits might be worth revisiting!) Egyptian religion is the source of the Judaeo-Christian belief in the after death resurrection promised to mankind as a reward for righteous living.

The Egyptian religion was a magical religion that involved a continuous interaction between the individual and the various deities who constituted its elaborate and exalted pantheon. Initiates were required to memorize magical formulas and spells, and to demonstrate their proficiency therein; tests of courage and honor were administered by the officers of the Temple. Possession of secret knowledge, along with a highly developed moral character, were necessary to penetrate the deeper levels of Egyptian spirituality.

Egypt's moral teaching presented in its Wisdom literature and Mortuary texts attain to the highest levels of sacred awareness. Egypt's temples, statues, frescoes, carvings, jewelry, painted scrolls and sarcophagi stand as mute witnesses to a brilliant and lofty spiritual culture that has never been equaled on earth. The silent and stationary images of The Egyptian Book of the Dead continue to speak and move today, some four millennia after their creation.

* * * * *
The story of the securing of the Papyrus of Ani combines elements of fate and tragedy, even slapstick, and marks the very end of European colonialism in North Africa. Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, assistant Keeper of the Egyptian Collection at the British Museum, and author and editor of many books on ancient Near Eastern civilizations, arrived in Egypt in 1887 with funds for the purchase of antiquities for the Museum. There had recently been a series of extraordinary finds in Upper Egypt. The Egyptian government, seeking to preserve the finds, had appointed police/military units to seek out native Egyptians in possession of these antiquities and to prevent Europeans from buying them. Budge was personally threatened with arrest should he attempt to purchase anything.

At Luxor, Budge found a papyrus he described as the largest such roll he had ever seen. "... I was amazed at the beauty and freshness of the colours of the human figures and animals, which in the dim light of the candles and heated air of the tomb, seemed to be alive." In fact Budge was obsessed with the papyrus. He arranged for a tin smith to make a cylindrical box to protect the roll. He evaded the chief of police of Luxor, who was carrying out orders from the Director of the Service of Antiquities. The Ani papyrus was stored in a small building nearby the old Luxor Hotel, where it had been placed under government guard. Budge and the antiquities dealers first attempted to get the guards drunk, then to bribe them to leave their posts for an hour. Finally they arranged for a crew to quietly dig under the wall. A substantial supper was arranged for the guards and while they feasted, the conspirators removed the papyrus of Ani along with numerous other finds through the two foot square hole they had dug for the purpose earlier in the evening. Secreting the papyrus aboard a steamer at midnight, Budge arrived in Cairo, and with the help of members of the British army, managed to get the papyrus off to London.

* * * * *
Here's where the real trouble began. Budge cut the papyrus into 37 nearly equal lengths for ease of handling. The sheets were glued onto wooden boards to keep then rigid. Fortunately Budge immediately commissioned a facsimile to be prepared. An exquisite limited edition was produced by color lithography in 1890 preserving forever the awesome beauty of the ancient original. Meanwhile the translation began which took five years and a companion volume of translation was released in 1895. Meanwhile, the extraordinary nature of the find encouraged the British Museum to display the sheets under a large skylight in a central hall. The glue and direct sunlight damaged the papyrus beyond repair. The translation had also revealed that many of the cuts were made in the wrong places, thus chapters were interrupted, vignettes were split, and text was left far from its accompanying image.

Book designer James Wasserman arranged to photograph his extremely rare copy of the British Museum facsimile of the papyrus. Utilizing the modern magic of computers and state-of-the-art production techniques, the images were scanned, reassembled, and electronically recut to best display the 78 foot papyrus as a book. A team of Egyptologists was led by Dr. Ogden Goelet of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at New York University, who wrote an overall commentary on the work along with a plate by plate The bulk of the translation used is that of the late Dr. Raymond O. Faulkner, whose work is universally acknowledged as the most authoritative. It was updated by Dr. Goelet to reflect advances in Egyptian philology. Carol Andrews of the Department of Antiquities of the British Museum wrote the Preface and facilitated access to the original papyrus. Eva van Dassow acted as overall project editor. The work of these scholars made this publication as intellectually accurate as it is visually beautiful.

The translation of the text of each image is placed on the page directly below the image, allowing the reader, for the first time in 3500 years, to gaze on the images while reading the words of the papyrus. Uncluttered with footnotes or other extraneous matter, the papyrus is displayed with the intent of allowing the modern reader to experience the full depth of the original. The restoration of the unity of word and image in this publication of the Papyrus of Ani has brought to life one of the most important early spiritual treasures of mankind.

Editorial Review:

This reissue of The Egyptian Book of the Dead, a perennial favorite, features a newly designed cover. Inside, the legendary 3,500-year-old Papyrus of Ani—the most beautiful of the ornately illustrated Egyptian funerary scrolls ever discovered—is restored in its original sequences of text and artwork. Four exquisitely illustrated gatefold spreads and an acclaimed translation by two noted Egyptologists showcase the Papyrus's elaborately bordered images and convey its intended sense of motion and meaning.

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs: Official Companion Book to the Exhibition sponsored by National Geographic

Zahi Hawass

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Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun - the most spectacular royal tomb ever found - is one of the most famous events in the history of archaeology. The treasures of this tomb surpass all others and the 50 Tutankhamun artifacts featured in this book illustrate many uses of gold and other precious materials in ancient Egypt, providing us with a glimpse into the extraordinary richness of this ancient civilization. The book also includes cutting-edge forensic data that may provide tantalizing clues to Tutankhamun's mysterious life and death. In addition, artifacts from the period preceding the reign of Tutankhamun will be featured, illuminating this fascinating era of Egyptian history and setting the stage for the treasures of Tut. These pieces will illustrate the history of the 18th dynasty, daily life under the golden pharaohs and the journeys of both kings and commoners to the afterlife and will include pieces dating to the reigns of four 18th dynasty pharaohs, the direct ancestors of Tutankhamun: Amenhotep II, Tuthmosis IV, Amenhotep III and Akhenaten

Stolen Legacy

G. M. James George

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Total reviews: 79 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A study of the DNA of ancient Greeks shows they were black African 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Read this Scientific Article:

HLA genes in Macedonians and the sub-Saharan origin of the Greeks:

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1034/j.1399-0039.2001.057002118.x

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3) Greeks are found to have a substantial relatedness to sub-Saharan (Ethiopian) people, which separate them from other Mediterranean groups. Both Greeks and Ethiopians share quasi-specific DRB1 alleles, such as *0305, *0307, *0411, *0413, *0416, *0417, *0420, *1110, *1112, *1304 and *1310. Genetic distances are closer between Greeks and Ethiopian/sub-Saharan groups than to any other Mediterranean group and finally Greeks cluster with Ethiopians/sub-Saharans in both neighbour joining dendrograms and correspondence analyses. The time period when these relationships might have occurred was ancient but uncertain and might be related to the displacement of Egyptian-Ethiopian people living in pharaonic Egypt
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Editorial Review:

The book is an attempt to show that the true authors of Greek Philosophy were not Greeks, but the people of North Africa, commonly called the Egyptians; and the praise and honor falsely given to Greeks for centuries belong to the people of North Africa. Consequently, this theft of the African legacy led to the erroneous world opinion that the African continent has made no contributions to civilizations, and that it's people were naturally backward. This is the basis of race prejudice, which has affected all people of color.

Before the Pharaohs: Egypt's Mysterious Prehistory

Edward F. Malkowski

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Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Presents conclusive evidence that ancient Egypt was originally the remnant of an earlier, highly sophisticated civilization

• Supports earlier speculations based on myth and esoteric sources with scientific proof from the fields of genetics, engineering, and geology

• Provides further proof of the connection between the Mayans and ancient Egyptians

• Links the mystery of Cro-Magnon man to the rise and fall of this ancient civilization

In the late nineteenth century, French explorer Augustus Le Plongeon, after years of research in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, concluded that the Mayan and Egyptian civilizations were related--as remnants of a once greater and highly sophisticated culture. The discoveries of modern researchers over the last two decades now support this once derided speculation with evidence revealing that the Sphinx is thousands of years older than Egyptologists have claimed, that the pyramids were not tombs but geomechanical power plants, and that the megaliths of the Nabta Playa reveal complex astronomical star maps that existed 4,000 years before conventional historians deemed such knowledge possible.

Much of the past support for prehistoric civilization has relied on esoteric traditions and mythic narrative. Using hard scientific evidence from the fields of archaeology, genetics, engineering, and geology, as well as sacred and religious texts, Malkowski shows that these mythic narratives are based on actual events and that a highly sophisticated civilization did once exist prior to those of Egypt and Sumer. Tying its cataclysmic fall to the mysterious disappearance of Cro-Magnon culture, Before the Pharaohs offers a compelling new view of humanity’s past.

King Tutankhamun: The Treasures of the Tomb

Zahi Hawass

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Editorial Review:

The ultimate book on King Tut and his tomb—the most exciting archaeological find the world has ever known.

The fabulous treasures of Tutankhamun have fascinated the public since their discovery by Howard Carter in 1922. Many books have been written about the boy king and his tomb, but this volume by world-renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass provides the reader with a unique perspective on this extraordinary archaeological find. Images by pioneering photographer Sandro Vannini offer distinctive views of almost 200 of the spectacular artifacts found at the burial site.

King Tutankhamun uses carefully selected objects to illustrate the entire ten years of painstaking excavation and documentation carried out by Carter and his team. Organized to follow the chambers of the tomb in the order in which they were excavated, it illuminates the site's most magnificent artifacts.

An experienced field archaeologist who has made many important discoveries himself, Dr. Hawass imbues the text with his own unique voice, imagining how exploration of the tomb must have felt for Carter and providing invaluable information about the objects. Sandro Vannini's photographs are extraordinary as well, allowing the objects to be seen in even more detail than is possible with the naked eye. 324 color illustrations, including 26 foldouts.

The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries

Mark Lehner

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An excellent reference book! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

A well written and well documented information on the pyramids. It does not cover ALL of the pyramids in Egypt, but does cover many less-visited ones also. A great reference work and printed on glossy paper that holds small details in photographs well. Many black & white photos along with some color photos.
Has well thought out diagrams of each pyramid and cutaways of important areas along with surrounding temple plans.
A MUST for your reference library!

Editorial Review:

"A fully illustrated compendium of every major pyramid of ancient Egypt."—Atlanta Journal Constitution

Mark Lehner brings his many years of field research in Egypt to this definitive book. He examines the pyramids in unprecedented detail, covering the practical aspects—the quarries, ramps, and tools used in construction—as well as the conceptual ones.

Professor Lehner surveys and describes the pyramids across their 3,000-year history, as well as explaining the rituals and mythology, the history of travelers, looters, and archaeologists, and the ways in which the pyramids were an integral part of the Egyptian state.

The hundreds of illustrations include computer reconstructions and specially commissioned artists' perspective views of the pyramids and their interior chambers. The book is at once a definitive sourcebook and an entertaining guide for scholars, students, and travelers. 556 illustrations, 83 in color.