Ancient Egypt

by Charles Freeman

This comprehensive and lavishly illustrated book unwraps the layered shroud of history to reveal both Egypts: the real land of kings and queens, officials and craftsmen, archaeologists and tomb robbers; and the Egypt of the imagination, which has exerted a hold on western culture since its origins in classical Greece - a hold that shows no sign of diminishing.

Genres: History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Charles Freeman is a freelance academic historian with wide interests in the history of European culture and thought. He is the author of the highly acclaimed Egypt, Greece and Rome, Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean. He has followed this up with The Greek Achievement (Penguin 1999), The Legacy of Ancient Egypt (Facts on File, 1997) and The Closing of the Western Mind, a study of the relationship between Greek philosophy and Christianity in the fourth century and beyond. His The Horses of St. Mark’s (Little Brown, 2004) is a study of these famous works of art in their historical contexts over the centuries. In 2003, Charles Freeman was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Reviews

[Augustus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book.
Loads of facts (which I love) and lots of pictures too, to give a feel for the place.
I wish it was my book and not the library's.
I think I need to get a little book of Ancient Egypt just for reference, in case I ever need to know which pharoahs came in the 13th dynasty or when Akhetaten was founded.

To be honest, I didn't read the last part, about how Ancient Egypt was rediscovered, as that isn't Egypt and it isn't ancient, that's Europe in the last 200 years - a period of history I have no interest in.