Aufstieg und Fall des Alten Ägypten

by Toby Wilkinson

Auf meisterhafte Weise bringt uns Toby Wilkinson, einer der weltweit angesehensten Ägyptologen, die Geschichte des Alten Ägypten nahe, vom 5. Jahrtausend vor Christus bis zum Tod der Pharaonin Kleopatra. Seine grosse Erzählkunst und die prachtvolle Bebilderung machen dieses Buch zu einem Standardwerk, umfassend und unterhaltsam zugleich.

"Der Ägyptologe aus Cambridge schafft es, über 800 Seiten hinweg die alte Kultur am Nil hochspannend zum Leben zu erwecken." Deutschlandradio

"Grossartig! EIne packende Darstellung der ersten Nation der Welt." The Times

"Wilkinson vermittelt seine persönliche Sicht auf die ägyptische Vergangenheit so erholsam und erhellend wie auf einer Nilkreuzfahrt." Bild der Wissenschaft

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Egypt, Ancient History, Historical, Africa, Audiobook

826 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 2010

About the author

Dr Toby Wilkinson joined the International Strategy Office in July 2011, working with the Pro Vice Chancellor (Jennifer Barnes) to support the schools, faculties and departments in their international engagements, and to develop the University's international strategy, particularly with regard to research collaborations and relationships with the EU, US, India and China. Prior to this, Dr Wilkinson was the Development Director at Clare College as well as Chairman of Cambridge Colleges Development Group.

As an acknowledged expert on ancient Egyptian civilisation and one of the leading Egyptologists of his generation, Toby Wilkinson has lectured around the world. He has excavated at the Egyptian sites of Buto and Memphis. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Egyptian History and has broadcast on radio and television in the UK and abroad, including BBC’s Horizon and Channel 4’s Private Lives of the Pharaohs, and was the consultant for the BBC’s award-winning documentary on the building of the Great Pyramid.

Upon graduating from the University of Cambridge he received the University’s Thomas Mulvey Prize and was elected to the prestigious Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellowship in Egyptology. He is a Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Durham.

Reviews

[Iset · Rating 5 out of 5]

From first picking it up, it became hard every time I had to put it down. The combination of fluid, easy writing and the fact that this book is packed to the rafters with interesting, engaging material meant it quickly became a page-turner. Toby Wilkinson does chronicle pharaonic Egypt chronologically from pre-dynastic period to annexation into the Roman empire, a format which is apparently "simplistic", but which to me seems clear and logical, and allows the reader to comprehend later events in their proper context, building upon past precedents, and demonstrating how pharaonic Egypt shifted and evolved over its duration.

This may be a popular history, but Wilkinson also writes in academia, and knows his stuff – the bibliography provides every possible authoritative work that a reader might wish for to engage in further study of the topics presented, and, as a new publication with a professional academic for an author, the book is tightly researched and up-to-date. In a bit of a glass-half-full-or-glass-half-empty situation, there were certain areas where I felt like Wilkinson provided only an overview and I wanted to know more, but on the other hand at other times Wilkinson provided me with all sorts of new information and interpretations – this is a bit of a unique situation to me though, creating the false impression of patchiness in the book, since the areas I felt were a little bit skimmed and wanted to know more about were areas of my specialist study.

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt is the definitive overview of pharaonic Egypt, highly recommended for beginners and amateurs, and it’s not too bad at teaching established specialists a few new things too!

9 out of 10.

[Anastasia Fitzgerald-Beaumont · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the end of this week I’m leaving on a long planned trip to Egypt, one that will take me from the Great Pyramid at Giza in the north to the temple of Abu Simbel in the south, from Lower Egypt to Upper Egypt. And just to confuse you the former is the north and the latter the south! It’s the ancient Egyptian view of the world, you see, all upside down.

A lot of my extramural reading for the past while has been dedicated to books with an Egyptian theme, including Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, Olivia Manning’s Levant Trilogy (what a super and sadly neglected writer she is) and Naguib Mahfouz’s Palace Walk, the first in the Cairo Trilogy. Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile is ready to be packed because I really want to read that sailing down the Nile. It will be yet another literary milestone for me, having read The Quite American in Saigon and Our Man in Havana in Havana!

But it’s the history of ancient Egypt that I really wanted to get close to. I know ‘bleeding chunks’ already; I imagine most people know something, even if it’s only smatterings about Tutankhamen, buried treasure and mummies curses! What I needed, though, was a decent overview, one that would take me through the whole spectrum of Egyptian history, which is precisely why I alighted on The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson.

This is a good book for a general audience, for people like me, coming to find a pattern in the pieces of a mosaic. The title is a little misleading, in that the Egypt of the pharaohs, beginning with the formation of the kingdom under Narmer in 2950BC, rose and fell and rose and fell and rose and fell, time and again. The wheel of history has never being better illustrated, from the Old Kingdom through the Middle Kingdom to the New Kingdom with several intermediate periods between.

Add to that over thirty dynasties then one begins to appreciate the sheer scale of things, the breathtaking passage of time. For me it really is sobering to think that over a thousand years separates Narmer from Ramesses II, the Ozymandius of Shelly’s poem; that Cleopatra, the final independent ruler of Egypt (actually from a dynasty of Greek interlopers), was as far removed from the founder as modern England is from the builders of Stonehenge.

At just over 500 pages Wilkinson tells his story well, in an easy and, at points, highly discursive manner. I dare say purists will find all sorts of faults but I enjoyed it. It’s the kind of book that leaves one wanting to know more, which is all to the good.

The story is a complicated one. The sheer number of rulers, dynasties, ups, downs, ins, outs and transitions tends to leave one a little breathless. I found myself continually turning back to the timeline, helpfully provided at the beginning, just to put people and events into context.

There are weaknesses. Given that religion played such an important part in Egyptian history a dedicated chapter on the main gods, forms of worship and patterns of belief would have been useful. It’s all there, certainly, but in quite a fragmented manner, scattered about like shards of pottery.

Still, all criticism aside, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt served its purpose and served it well. I now have a framework in my head which will allow me to put the traces and fragments I hope see on my travels in proper context. And that is exactly what I was looking for, a handy guidebook to one of the most beguiling phases in the history of civilization.

[Marta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Toby Wilkinson manages what I thought was impossible: making the fascinating history of ancient Egypt into a boring recital of what king after king has done. Granted, putting 3000 years into the pages of one reasonably sized tome is no small task: you inevitably have to edit. But what you put in should be exciting. How bad is your writing if even Anthony and Cleopatra come off as wooden figures?

The approach I would prefer is broad strokes: major historic phases, trends, economic, political, social and cultural forces; acheological clues and surviving artifacts; with spotlighting the important personalities and events. Wilkinson instead tries to cram every single king, with their wars, burial monuments and self-aggrandizing wall inscriptions into the story. The only cultural forces he examines in detail are religion and building of monuments: the two are invariably linked as the Egyptian religion considered the burial a preparation for eternal life of the soul and kings built huge pyramids as tombs.

What’s worse, he attributes everything, especially worship of the king as living god, to the pharaoh’s drive to cement their despotic power. Yes, Egypt’s kings were absolute rulers, and yes, their monuments and religion supported this. But there is no need to attach this to everything. The words “propaganda” and “power” are in every second sentence. It gets tiresome. So tiresome that I considered abandoning the book around 20-30% in, as this was the worst in the old Kingdom parts. But with the arrival of the 18th dynasty and the New Kingdom, the narrative became more lively, perhaps because we have more information about the personalities of the era.

While we get an endless list of kings, pyramids and battles, the daily life of Egyptians is barely mentioned. We have plenty of artifacts from the era, but besides royal tombs, archeology does not exist for Wilkinson. There are plenty of records of contracts, pottery for cosmetics and jewelry, even boats and ceramics; yet there is nothing of clothing, food, boat building, trade, economics. He mentions agriculture as the base of the economy, the taxes and the bureaucracy; but without even one everyday example - and I know they exist because I have read about them in other books.

Art is not covered besides large monuments, nor we get an insight into the traditional conventions of art. He manages to cover Akhenaten’s reign without a single mention of the extraordinary art from that era.

Some parts were quite exciting, beginning from the 18th dynasty, the reign of Amenhotep, and the heretic king Akhenaten, and the glorious reign of Rameses III, and the rule of Lybians and Persians. The Ptolemies would have been quite good too, if I have not already known how much better the story actually was.

I like to listen to history and science on audio recreationally: I love the stories and discoveries, and rarely find them dry or boring. However I was regularly tuning this out. This probably also has to do with the narrator’s monotone delivery. So while this is not a total waste of time, there have to be better written histories out there.

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had thought of ancient Egypt as a roughly 3,000-year span of almost timeless tradition, unfolding in relative peace and isolation. But Wilkinson gives a long, eventful, detailed account, focused on the dramas of political intrigue, civil war, and unchecked egomania among the elites. Rather than presenting the Egyptians’ accomplishments in art, engineering, or medicine as wonders of ancient wisdom, Wilkinson depicts a real-politic world where power holders claimed godhood, governance depended on maximum intimidation, and defeated rivals were tortured to death, with their mutilated bodies exposed in public. Wilkinson connects clues of many kinds to look behind the official statements of rulers who would wield “the power of the written word to render permanent a desired state of affairs.”

[James F · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite its length, and the claims on the jacket flap, this book is definitely a popularization and not (as I had hoped it might be) a more up to date replacement for the earlier standard histories, such as the one author book by Nicolas Grimal or the collaborative Oxford history edited by Ian Shaw.

The sketchy and vague coverage of the predynastic and early dynastic period was particularly disappointing, since this is the area the author is an expert on, and perhaps the one where the most exciting discoveries are taking place, and where the earlier books are the most out of date; this book was not anywhere near the level of his own Early Dynastic Egypt.

The Old and Middle Kingdoms are covered in about the detail one would expect from a popular book; the New Kingdom is more fully treated, the Late Period was covered in more depth than I expected, while the two brief chapters allotted to the Ptolemaic period are obviously inadequate -- he would have done better to have stopped in 332 BCE as most books on ancient Egypt do.

Much of the length is due to the fact that this is a "thesis" book -- Wilkinson is concerned with hammering us over the head with his original and highly unsuspected discovery that ancient Egypt was -- gasp! -- not a modern liberal democracy! Actually, a book that showed how and why the Egyptian monarchy oppressed the peasantry or what the royal ideology was about and how it developed would be useful; Wilkinson's strangely passionate but superficial and often anachronistically expressed rhetoric is not. (For a more sophisticated discussion of the ideology of the pharaohs one could still go to the somewhat earlier The Mind of Egypt by Jan Assmann, or even to the classic nearly seventy year old Kingship and the Gods by Henri Frankfort.) What I missed totally was any serious discussion of the Egyptian economy, agricultural production, or their link with the organization of the monarchy -- there are just repeated cliches about the topography of the Nile Valley leading naturally to despotism. Even the old "hydraulic hypothesis" of the fifties was less simplistic than that.

There were a lot of new perspectives and much new research in the first decade of the new millenium; there are bibligraphic references to this work in the notes, but not much has made its way into the text.

As a popularization, this is somewhat worthwhile and certainly the most up to date book of its length, and I would recommend it to a beginner who wants something a little more substantial than the books by Barbara Merz but not really scholarly; for anyone who has read the earlier works mentioned there is not much reason to read this one.

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

By its nature The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt skips over a lot of history but as an introduction to the five-millennia-long history of Egypt - up to the Roman conquest in 31 BC - Toby Wilkinson's effort excels. If you want to know the details of a particular era, the book's near-80 pages of notes and bibliography provide a rich vein to mine.

While I am familiar with the general outline of Egyptian history, every section had something new to say to me that enriched my understanding or revealed some aspect I hadn't considered or known. A few of the many examples I could list include the political unification of the Nile Valley c. 3000 BC. It began with the rise of three power centers (Tjeni, Nubt and Nekhen) and ended when Tjeni's ruler (the man we know as Narmer or Menes) conquered his rivals to inaugurate the First Dynasty. From its birth, Egypt displayed many of the stereotypical images moderns associate with it, including the absolute despotism of the pharaohs. Or there's Hatshepsut, the famous female pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty. Her rule is justly famous but she was only one in a line of powerful women who played significant roles in the government. Then there is Wilkinson's focus on the Heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten's dictatorship and fanatical monotheism, rather than on the usual emphasis on his possible role in Jewish history. (And, returning to remarkable females, it's possible that Nefertiti reigned as pharaoh for several years after his death.) Another interesting period comprised the reigns of the 25th Dynasty's pharaohs, Kushites who conquered Egypt - ironically - in a religiously motivated campaign to restore the proper worship of Amun. And as a final example, it's instructive to see the Persian and Macedonian conquests through Egyptian eyes: Wedjahorresnet, an offical who collaborated with the Persian regime and convinced Cambyses to adopt pharaonic regalia, and Sematawytefnakht, who witnessed Alexander's victory over Darius.

This is a very readable and interesting synopsis of a land and people that deserve to be better known, and comes highly recommended.

[Kist · Rating 4 out of 5]

(re-read) Some parts really shine, like the chapters on the pyramids or the wild 18th dynasty and Ptolemies. Other parts can be a bit of a drag due to lack of sources (not the authors fault necessarily but there are large stretches of this). Can be a challenging read but overall this does a solid job building a base of knowledge and has been a great reference for me over the years.

[Sud666 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The vast scope of Egyptian history becomes manifest as soon as you open the book and look at the timeline. I noticed that the Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest, emerged around 2600 BCE. Yet, by this point, Egypt was on its fifth King of the Third Dynasty.

Starting with the unification of Egypt (Upper and Lower) by the first Pharoah, Narmer in the year 2950 BCE and ending with Cleopatra (or technically- Caesarion) in 30 CE. This massive history is excellently covered by Toby Wilkinson. This is a superb book for someone looking to get a great overview of the various Dynasties that ruled Egypt.

The book is well written and entertaining to read. It shows the various cultures that came to Egypt and were subsumed by the native culture and became "Egyptian", though the various Pharaohs and their Dynasties had a myriad of different backgrounds from native Egyptians to Nubians and eventually the Ptolemaic rulers.

The truly vast scope of Egyptian history unfurls as entire dynasties come and go, while the rest of the world is still in a pre-historic phase. It also is a great way to understand the various deities and practices of the Egyptian religion. You will see different Dynasties, and cultures, revere different gods and thus the pantheon of Egypt grew with each new Dynasty.

A great introduction to a sweeping history. This is a book that gives an excellent overview and may help in focusing on a particular period or person for someone looking for more in-depth research. But for the average person seeking to expand their knowledge about Egypt, this is a a book you will be hard-pressed to pass up. Highly recommended to anyone seeking a great book on the amazing span of Egyptian history.

[Sense of History]

Toby Wilkinson (°1969, University of Cambridge UK) certainly has a good track record. I also appreciated his anthology of ancient Egyptian texts (Writings from Ancient Egypt). But this was just too simplistic.

Perhaps I have already read too many studies on ancient Egyptian history that are especially outstanding for their nuances and perspectives, such as those of Shaw (The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt) and Romer (A History of Ancient Egypt: From the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid and A History of Ancient Egypt, Volume 2: From the Great Pyramid to the Fall of the Middle Kingdom). They point again and again to the still imperfect state of our knowledge of ancient Egyptian history: the sources, however abundant, remain fragmentary, and the proof of this alone are the continued new discoveries that shed new light on things. And they also warn against viewing that distant period too much from our own time, because modern notions such as kingship or state, for example, don't really cover situations from thousands of years ago.

And yet Wilkinson speaks of the Egyptians as inventors of the nation-state: "the unification of Egypt in 2950 bce created the world's first nation-state." How is it possible that a concept from the 19th century can be placed back to 5,000 years ago without nuance? Is it any wonder, then, that Wilkinson uses words like dictatorial, authoritarian, and totalitarian all the time? That's ridiculous, of course, especially when you know that the pharaohs didn't have the means to control and keep their subjects under such a spell, unless you read their propagandistic texts about 10,000s of enemies that they put to the sword with their own hands in a literally way. And another example: Wilkinson systematically uses the word 'taxation', and expresses his disgust at it without batting an eyelid, while other experts nuance and explicitly use the words 'tithing' or 'tribute'. I could go on here for a while. Wilkinson himself summarizes his thesis: “From the dawn of history, the state's arrogance in its dealings with the population set the scene for the next three thousand years. For the ancient Egyptians, the price of national unity, effective government, and a successful economy was authoritarian rule.”

Am I implying that Ancient Egypt was a paradise on earth, and that the pharaoh was only on a friendly and peaceable stance with his subjects, who in turn worshiped him without murmur? Of course not. But between those two extremes lies a very wide sea of nuances. It’s a pity Wilkinson consciously ignores this, because in general this study seems to offer a relatively concise overview of a very fascinating civilization. Everything shows that the author is well versed in the subject matter. The more I think about it, the angrier I get: this seems like a real misuse of the past to serve a contemporary agenda.

[GoldGato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those darn ancient Egyptians have always confused me to no end. When did they first put it all together? Why are there so many different eras of kingdoms? When was the last hieroglyphic written? I just needed one massive volume to explain it all to me, as Wikipedia was unable to keep up with my constant viewing. After reading this book, all the other books on Egypt now make sense and I can confidently discuss the various pharaohs and their times.

To think that we are still fascinated with a kingdom from thousands of years ago says much for the accomplishments of the early kings and the formalized structure they put into place. Using a combination of religion and the flooding of the Nile (uphold order by defeating chaos), they managed to create a civilization that wowed even the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans. The tombs, the mummies, the temples, the rituals, the writing, the everything still fascinates us to this day. And there are still hidden burial sites not yet found, which is simply amazing.

This book is broken up chronologically, which makes it easy to follow the dynasties and the viziers/priests. There is a full breakdown of each Pharaoh at the beginning and the maps on the end-pieces are handy. As I was nearing the end of the book, I also started viewing the THE NILE TV travelogue, which takes the viewer on a lovely boat ride through the river that made it all happen. Perfect accompaniment.

This is the type of history book I love, one which makes it easy to understand for the amateur who wants to learn more.

Book Season = Summer (when the Nile flooded)

[Marc Lamot · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have known. The title alone, that simplistic ‘The Rise and Fall’, did not bode well. Nevertheless, I was convinced by the rave reviews, also in renowned newspapers. Note: this is written with verve, and so it certainly appeals to those who want a short overview of ancient Egyptian history. But there's the rub: Wilkinson has systematically described all of Egyptian history in 20th-21st century terms, that is, in terms of an anti-statist conservative. Constantly, Wilkinson describes Ancient Egyptian society as dictatorial, authoritarian, and even totalitarian. My suspicion is that he had a current agenda with this book. I don't want to compromise his knowledge and skills, but with this simplistic and anachronistic approach he has done the historiography of ancient Egypt no favors at all. More in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Kaśyap · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good narrative of ancient Egyptian history. Gives a mainly political and economic overview of the period from the first king Narmer and the unification of the two lands to the fall of the last queen Cleopatra ( with a sketchy coverage of the predynastic period).

The author has a good narrative style that flows through the various dynasties without getting bogged down, and their socioeconomic, religious and foreign policies and how they influenced and changed Egypt. While it doesn't go deep into the study of ideology of the Egyptian kingship, it does a good job in showing how the institute of the divine kingship in Egypt has evolved and varied over the period of 3000 years, and also provides some overview of the changes in the mortuary cults and the forms of worship like the democratisation of "afterlife". There are some passages that deal with the soldiers, peasants and the craftsmen, but this book doesn't really shed much light on the daily life of the commoners.

On the whole this serves very well as a good sweeping overview of Ancient Egyptian history for a beginner and the author provided extensive notes and bibliographical information at the end for deeper study.

[Pulek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bardzo satysfakcjonująca lektura, kalendarium i pełen poczet faraonów oraz wszystkiego co za sobą pozostawili. Autor szczególnie zwraca uwagę na mroczną stronę egipskiej cywilizacji skupiając się nie tylko zdobyczach kulturowych czy podbojach, ale na ich ludzkim koszcie , wyzysku zwykłych ludzi. Pokazuje też mechanizmy starożytnej propagandy, czyli głównie religii , która pełniła siłę napędową sankcjonowania kolejnych władców , którzy kreowali aktywnie mity na swój temat. Ciekawe też było spojrzenie na to ile chrześcijaństwo "ukradło" wierzeń Egiptowi, np. motywy takie jak zmartwychwstanie, sąd ostateczny , grzech pierworodny, czy matka z dzieciątkiem na ikonografii. Poza tym na pewno trudno czytać tą książkę na raz, suche fakty przeplatają co bardziej emocjonujące wydarzenia, co oczywiście jest oczekiwane w książce raczej akademickiej opartej na bogatych źródłach.

[Jacob · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - made it about a 1/4 of the way through but just couldn't bring myself to finish. I have never written a review for a DNF book, but for this one I am making an exception. And not because of the rather dry, pedestrian method of writing, but for the author's incredible breach of historical writing. Mr. Wilkinson made the faux paus of judging an ancient civilization through a modern lens and it makes the work a complete disaster.

In his prologue he writes, "In studying ancient Egypt for more than twenty years, I have grown increasingly uneasy about the subject of my research...ancient Egypt was a society in which the relationship between the king and his subjects was based on coercion and fear, not love and admiration." That's a pretty sweeping statement to make about 3,000 years of history, not to mention it begs the question how many citizens from any age and country have a relationship of "love and admiration" with their rulers.

An early chapter is called "taxation without representation" (because as we all know, most societies throughout history have made sure that their subjects have governmental representation in regards to their taxes). In this chapter, Mr. Wilkinson writes, "...but the rewards were not evenly spread across the population. Cemeteries that span the period of state formations show a sudden polarization of grave size and wealth, a widening gap between rich and poor, with those who were already affluent benefitting the most." What a waste of ink. He is making value observations about a phenomenon that could be noted of any human society in history, that tells me nothing informative about the civilization or daily life of Egyptians.

Mr. Wilkinson's never ceasing attempt to pass judgment on ancient Egypt, causes him to deliberately mislead his readers. Khufu was the pharaoh who had the great pyramid at Giza built in about 2528 BC. Mr. Wilkinson quotes Herodotus by saying that he "declared that Khufu 'brought the country into all sorts of misery. He closed all the temples, then, not content with excluding his subjects from the practice of their religion, compelled them without exception to labour as slaves for his own advantage.' Herodotus added that 'the Egyptians can hardly bring themselves to mention [him], so great is their hatred.'" How disingenuous. First, Mr. Wilkinson is quoting a person who also claimed that the inscription in the pyramids were lists of "the quantities of radishes, onions, and garlick consumed by labourers who constructed it." In other words, Herodotus is not what we would call a true historian who always reported factual and verified information. Second, Herodotus is writing about Egypt at a time when Persia controlled both Egypt and his homeland, so who is not mentioning, and why are they not mentioning Khufu in an Egypt 2000 years later under foreign rule? Mr. Wilkinson is allowing his one man crusade to portray ancient Egypt as a tyrannical cesspool, to justify deliberately misleading his readers as to historical facts.

Bottom line here is that every chance Mr. Wilkinson has, he makes some quip about the authoritarian rule of ancient Egypt. That isn't why I buy a history book. I'm not interested in a modern judgment made about a civilization that rose and fell thousands of years in the past. I want to know what their values were, what their daily lives were like, how they interacted with foreigners both politically and economically. The reality is that we don't have a lot of data or information that really tells us how the pharaonic government was viewed or how repressive it really was. In fact, I would argue that truly repressive governments are overthrown eventually, even in ancient times. The fact that the Egyptian system lasted from approximately 3000BC to 30BC should be an indicator that it wasn't nearly as repressive and despotic as he tries to convey repeatedly in every chapter.

If you want a "history" book about an ancient land, written through a modern progressive lens of deprecation and self-righteousness then pick this dry tome up. Otherwise, look somewhere else for your history of Ancient Egypt.

[Netta · Rating 3 out of 5]

The very first thing you have to know about this book is that it mimics Ancient Egypt by being mostly centered around the king and his (sometimes hers) glory. It gives readers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put themselves in ancient Egyptian’s shoes and imagine how commoners must have lived with kings so distant, appearing out of nowhere and disappearing into mighty, glorious, god-like nothing, leaving a legacy of shattered dreams and unfulfilled desires to overtake gods. I presume, entitling the book The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt Kingship would have done it more justice. Anyway, speaking of books on Ancient Egypt (and the ancient Near East in general), we are rarely here for commoners, aren’t we?

I wonder what kind of reader Mr Wilkinson had in mind writing his book. Was it “an experienced reader” with immense knowledge of the ancient Near East? Then Mr Wilkinson should have known better because “an experienced reader” would be unbearably bored by the end of the first chapter. For “an experienced reader” Mr Wilkinson’s book, most likely, is nothing more than seemingly endless and yet surprisingly brief chatter about power, philosophy of ancient kingship and propaganda with tiny scraps of actual history here and there. Well, maybe this book wasn’t designed for “an experienced reader”, on the contrary, its primary audience is “a devoted beginner” – someone who’s very interested in the ancient Near East and Ancient Egypt in particular and eager to absorb information. If so, then again, Mr Wilkinson should have known better because “a devoted beginner” would be unbearably bored by the end of the first chapter. For “a devoted beginner” Mr Wilkinson’s book, most likely, is nothing more than endless stream of the unknown – names, toponyms, references to mysterious conflicts and agreements, gods, kings etc. Well, maybe this book wasn’t designed for “a devoted beginner”. Maybe I exaggerate, and the primary audience of this book is someone who’s in between “a devoted beginner” and “an experienced reader”. It’s possible, but as you might have already guessed, if so, Wilkinson should have known better. Being that “someone in between” in question, I can give you a couple of reasons why I think so. I picked this book to enhance my knowledge of Ancient Egypt history. It means that I have already been familiar with its rulers, gods, art, culture and what Mr Wilkinson loves to call “propaganda”. I’d expected this book to give me some more background information, to shape and structure the information that I have so as to get a full picture, and I got none of that. It’s sad to admit that there’s no balance between entertaining musings and useful information – I call this type of books “a never-ending-preface” books. They are usually fun to read, very quotable and seemingly friendly (till you stumble upon the unknown) as prefaces are, but they leave nothing except even more questions, because “the real” part of the book, where normally you’d get the information, does not exist. Instead of giving context and background information about the ancient Near East and relations between its parts, kingship and commoners, Mr Wilkinson leaves his readers with a few useless maps and illustrations which apparently were supposed to help readers navigate in the ocean of either too detailed chapters or too brief.

And yet, I have to give Mr Wilkinson credit for the impressive amount of work that he did. It’s palpable that The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt is backed up with many years of research and vast knowledge. Writing a book which covers history of the region from 3000 BC to 30 BC and stays fascinating and readable all along is every scholar’s sweet Utopia, to which Mr Wilkinson came quite close.

[June Ling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dumbfounded for words to describe this book. Nothing sort of wonder and amazement. From the moment I picked it up, I couldn’t stop to put it away. So easy to read, beautifully articulated and well written, this is THE book for anyone who wants to dip their feet into ancient Egypt. Toby Wilkinson has a way of bringing characters to life and describing even the most minute detail that really pull at your heartstrings. It it really a beautiful balance of scientific/academic and literary narrative piece. You begin to feel pity; empathy; disdain; disgust; sadness.. everything you could possible feel when he breaks down individual pharaoh’s desires and pains. This did not feel like a typical history book of facts and bits of information here and there that gives a rough overview; no, not at all. This book completely encapsulates the ancient Egyptians’ essence as a society.. family.. nation.. country. I’m just in awe of this book. Now that I’ve finished it… I can’t quite explain how I’m feeling. It’s like I went through a sort of enlightenment.. a mix of pure joy and sadness (probably because I’ve finished the book? Ha!)

Excuse my rambling. But really, whether you’re just starting out on this amazing journey of Egyptology or you have some basic knowledge prior, this book just won’t disappoint you. I love it.

Favourite read of the year so far.

[Jorge Zuluaga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Para todos los amantes del antiguo Egipto (los llamaré aquí #KemetLovers*), este, definitivamente, es un texto obligado.

Para mí, hay dos razones simples para considerarlo así: (1) esta escrito por una autoridad en la materia; su autor, Toby Wilkinson, no solo es un egiptólogo reconocido, sino además un escritor de divulgación afamado y premiado. Y (2) el libro está muy bien escrito, es ameno (parece una novela) y es fácil de leer para quiénes no somos expertos; creo que es difícil encontrar una mejor versión resumida de los 3.000 años de historia del mas longevo y grandioso imperio de todos los tiempos, que la que encontraran en "Auge y caída del antiguo Egipto".

Si esto es suficiente para animarlos a leer el libro, dejen de leer esta reseña y empiecen ahora consiguiendo el libro (ya no se edita así que deben conseguirlo de segunda o en formato electrónico). En caso contrario, abajo ofrezco otros detalles.

En pocas frases ¿de qué trata el libro?. El texto hace un recorrido cronológico (con algún solapamiento entre capítulos) por la "historia política" de Egipto; entendiendo aquí por "político", la sucesión de dinastías de gobernantes (reyes, reinas, faraones, gobernadores, visires, etc.), autóctonos y ajenos, desde los tiempos del Egipto protodinástico (ha. 3000 a.e.c.) hasta el final del Egipto farónico, ya en tiempo romano, con la muerte de Cleopatra VII y de sus hijos "latinoegipcios" (¿existirá ese adjetivo?).

¿Cuál es más o menos la estructura del libro?. El libro se divide en 5 partes, que cubren más o menos 5 grandes períodos de la historia de Egipto (no todos ¡pilas!): período pre y prodinástico, imperio antiguo, primer período intermedio, imperio medio, imperio nuevo y período grecoromano.

Cada parte se divide a su vez en 4 a 6 capítulos; capítulos cortos, fáciles de leer: una verdadera delicia para los lectores a los que nos gusta tener descansos frecuentes.

Los títulos de los capítulos y las secciones están llenos de referencias a la cultura popular: "el fin de la inocencia", "guerra y paz", "una espada de doble filo", "la era de la invención", "historia de dos ciudades", etc. ¡Punto para Wilkinson! (sé que esto parece superficial, pero todas las cosas que hagan agradable la lectura de un libro de historia ¡son bienvenidas por los aficionados!).

¿Quiénes podrían encontrar este libro entretenido?. Sin lugar a dudas ¡todos los verdaderos #KemetLovers!. O mejor: encontrar el libro agradable y útil debería constituirse en una verdadera "prueba de fuego" (una expresión que aprendí en este libro tiene origen en los rituales mágicos egipcios del viaje de los difuntos al inframundo) de tu pasión por el antiguo Egipto. Para quiénes quieran algo ligero y lleno de datos interesantes, tal vez este libro se excede en detalles y podrían aburrirse fácilmente.

Decime la verdad ¿qué es lo peor que tiene el libro?. La verdad, la verdad (y aquí puedo pecar por mi sesgo por Egipto) ¡nada!. Una vez lo empece, no pude dejar de leerlo.

Pero en honor a la verdad (que piden los que lean está reseña y no sean tan gomosos como yo) reitero lo que dije en un párrafo anterior: es cierto que en algunos apartes Wilkinson se excede en los detalles y esto puede terminar siendo agotador para la mayoría. Como sucede con la mayoría de los libros, hay capítulos que posiblemente te harán desistir. Pero, como también sucede con la mayoría de los buenos libros, después de un par de capítulos pesados, vienen otros llenos de referencias e historias apasionantes.

Leí el texto en formato Kindle y para quiénes conocen la plataforma sabrán que a veces los subrayados de otras personas son sutilmente indicados por el dispositivo. Con esto me di cuenta que la mayoría de los lectores abandonaron el libro mucho antes de la tercera parte (los subrayados dejaron de aparecer en la segunda); curiosamente es en la tercera parte cuando la cosa se pone más emocionante con la llegada del hoy denominado Imperio nuevo y las dinastías de los grandiosos "Amenhoteps" y "Tutmoses". ¡Aguanten para llegar hasta allá!

¿Cuál es la mejor parte?. Para mí la parte más emocionante es la cuarta parte ("poderío militar") que comienza con el reinado del singular Horemheb, el general que supuso la reorganización del estado después de las (a la larga) desastrosas reformas de Amenhotep IV (el famoso hereje Ajenatón) y los chapuceros intentos de dos o tres reyes intermedios (incluyendo el muy recordado e icónico Tutanjamón, más importante por su intacto ajuar funerario que por su verdadera importancia histórica). Horemheb me recordó a los dictadores militares hispanoamericanos, con los que sufrimos en el siglo XX. Su historia, sin embargo, es más contradictoria.

Esta parte cubre los grandes logros civiles y militares de los primeros Ramesidas (Ramses I, Seti I, Ramses II y III), sus conquistas, batallas y el impresionante despliegue de construcciones civiles y religiosas por todo Egipto. Estos capítulos me recordaron las mejores novelas de Santiago Posteguillo (tal vez fue por eso que disfrute tanto de esta parte).

¿Algún datico curioso que me anime a leer el libro?. Creo que el mensaje (o el dato) más interesante que me dejo la lectura de "Auge y caída del antiguo Egipto" es lo imperfecto que fueron los egipcios (o mejor, sus gobernantes). Estamos tan acostumbrados a "adorar ciegamente" al antiguo Egipto sin reconocer sus evidentes defectos, la tiranía de sus reyes, la horrenda desigualdad social, la pobreza y sufrimiento del pueblo llano (por casi 3.000 años), la vileza de su aristocracia, las guerras perdidas, las invasiones sufridas, que una historia como esta se recibe como una buena dosis de realidad para comprender de forma más equilibrada la historia de esta increíble cultura.

Si terminaran admirando más o tal vez odiando al antiguo Egipto es difícil saberlo; pero es definitivo que si te gusta la historia de Egipto, debes leer el libro de Wilkinson.

* El #KemetLovers se lo robe a mi profesora de Egiptología, Elizabeth Noreña. Síganla en en instagram @elianubis, en Twitter @elianubis y en su genial sitio web https://egiptologiamedellin.com.

[Tony Sunderland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most civilisations emerge out of chaos to create some form of ordered society. Many even progress and then eventually decline over time. Toby Wilkinson however, argues that the ancient Egyptians never really got beyond their most ancient 'ordered' state before they were eventually consumed by the Roman Empire. Wilkinson takes the romance out of anyone pursuing the idea that the ancient Egyptians were an enlightened guiding light of illumination that has been lost. Instead, he argues convincingly that this civilisation was essentially a deluded mass who spent their lives building monuments and temples to their equally deluded but sickly privileged kings.

Anyone who reads this book and then visits the ruins of ancient Egypt will not see the creative achievements of a magical culture; but rather testaments to the darker side of human nature and our susceptibility to both manipulation and delusion. Makes me think about what is happening in our world today.

[Dax · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful history of the Ancient Egyptian empire from it's founding with the first King Narmer in 3100 B.C to the death of Cleopatra and the last days of Ptolemaic Egypt. Though no fault of his own, Wilkinson's book does start out a little slow. Remnants of the Early Dynastic Period are lacking in narrative details,so Wilkinson is forced to merely provide a high level overview of the rulers, their construction projects and their religious beliefs. As primary sources become more available, however, Wilkinson is able to construct a more detailed and interesting narrative. Beginning with the 18th dynasty, 'The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt' really takes off. Be patient with the first hundred pages or so and this one starts paying dividends quickly.

[Aloke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly well researched and lots of very readable parts. But I think, probably of necessity, covering all that ground meant cutting back on a more holistic overview. The conclusion for example is very abrupt.

[Sabrina Kammer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Das Buch hat mich ziemlich lange begleitet - was aber nicht heisst, dass es schlecht ist. Ich finde es sogar sehr gut.

Schon seit Jahren interessiere ich mich für Ägypten und war daher sehr gespannt, was mich für Informationen erwarten. Und die Informationen sind sehr umfangreich - von der Entstehung des alten Ägyptens bis zu seinem Untergang (wie der Buchtitel schon sagt).
Man wird durch die verschiedenen Dynastien geführt, was in ihnen passiert ist und wie sich Ägypten an sich entwickelt hat.

Sehr viele Herrscher, Könige und Pharaone werden vorgestellt - so viele, dass ich sie mir gar nicht alle merken kann. Natürlich ist darunter auch Tutanchamun, der wohl berühmteste Pharao.

Ich finde die Informationen in dem Buch wirklich sehr gut, auch wenn es sehr viel auf einmal ist. Daher werde ich das Buch bestimmt noch mehrmals in die Hände nehmen und es lesen, damit ich das ganze besser verinnerlichen kann.

Mir hat der Schreibstil gut gefallen, auch wenn es ab und an ein wenig trocken gewirkt hat. Das liegt, wie erwähnt, dass man sehr viele Informationen erhält.

Interessant für mich war zu erfahren, wie gross die Distanz zwischen Königen und Untertanen war. Es ist erschreckend, wie gut es die Herrscher hatte und wie das Volk dafür leiden musste. Solche Dinge werden gerne 'vergessen' und in diesem Buch wird auch dieser Aspekt sachlich dargestellt.

Was mir sehr gut gefällt, ist die Übersicht im Anhang von den Dynastien und den verschiedenen Herrschern - wirklich klasse und es hilft, den Überblick zu behalten. Auch die diversen Abbildungen finde ich super und geben einen Einblick in die jeweilige Zeit.

Fazit

Für jeden, der sich für das alte Ägypten interessiert und vor einem Faktenreichen, gut recherchierten Buch nicht zurückschreckt, kann ich 'Aufstieg und Fall des alten Ägyptens' nur empfehlen. Für mich bekommt das Buch 5 Sterne.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introduction to ancient Egypt. The origins and changes to what was ancient Egypt make very good reading. Despite studying history I knew little of Egypt beside the pyramids, Tut, Cleopatra, and an understanding of a Greek takeover of the region. The author is more critical of the society than the idealized view many people have of the advanced culture. Life was very rough for the great majority of the population. The cattle for the elites ate better than those who raised the cattle. The study of how the man became a leader and then “divine” to control a population. A well done and informative survey of an advanced ancient culture.

I listened to the Audible version of this book. Having a map of the historical region is very helpful.

[Ron Sami · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a large study of a three thousand year span of Egyptian history.

Plot. Rating 5
The book is a solid historical overview with some apt additions about archeology. These stories complement the main plot well.
The plot starts from prehistoric times, surveying Egyptian history in some detail for a book of this size. I liked the first two-thirds of the book the most, in which it shows how Egypt reached its greatness several times, then underwent rather long periods of devastation and chaos in order to rise again. The last millennium of Egypt was described in less detail, but still quite thoroughly. I think that this is natural, given the increased density of historical events, and due to the limited size of the book, this period was written with broader strokes.

Characters. Rating 5
A succession of Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, as well as their closest servants and assistants replace each other on the pages of the book. Nevertheless, in many places, an overview of the life of ordinary Egyptians was made. Some of the characters have distinctive features; their personal lives are shown well and their inclinations, which passed into the affairs of their reign, were clearly described. Basically, these are the most prominent pharaohs, of whom there were at least twenty people. Most of the characters were only mentioned in name and not described because of the incredible duration of the historical period presented.

Dialogues. Rating 4
The problem of finding dialogues in a non-fiction book is very difficult. However, a small number of dialogues are found in this book. First of all, this is in diplomatic correspondence, for example, the excellent answers of Amenhotep III to the claims of neighboring kings. Also, many archaeological inscriptions display good dialogues.

Writing style. Rating 4
Despite the huge amount of information, the book was easy to read. One research topic replaced another smoothly and in time.

Worldbuilding. Rating 5
All aspects of ancient Egyptian life are described in the book. Although it seemed to me that most of the attention was paid to architecture, due to Ancient Egypt’s unprecedented scale of construction, even in comparison with advanced medieval civilizations. The book explores the grandiose construction of the pharaohs perfectly.
In addition, the posthumous beliefs and religion of the Egyptians, along with their gradual evolution, are brilliantly displayed. Art and culture are just as well described, as are the internal politics of the pharaohs. An analysis is given of the geography of the country, which influenced many aspects of the life of the Egyptians.
The book tells about the wars of Ancient Egypt, for example, about two thousand years of confrontation with Nubia and the kingdom of Kush, or about Egypt's resistance to various foreign invaders. The army of the New Kingdom is characterized and the pharaohs-conquerors are briefly described.

Conclusion. Overall rating 5
In my opinion, this is a great example of historical literature that analyzes a long period of Egyptian history.

[Wilhelmina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huge, fascinating, and well written. I personally found it lagged a little during the Libyan and Kushite chapters, but overall it was remarkably well done, and at certain points I would even call it a page turner. Wilkinson does have a very realistic view of the Ancient Egyptians, and doesn't hesitate to call a spade a spade- or a Pharaoh a totalitarian tyrant. He spells out the entire history of Ancient Egypt beautifully, however, and really gives you a sense of context for all of the rulers and monuments and events. I'm really happy that I chose this book/tome as my first comprehensive survey of Egyptian/Pharaonic history. Highly recommended.

[Saumen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will never be able to thank this book enough for how much it has quenched my Thirst to know about Ancient Egypt.Absolutely Unputdownable for any Egyptian History Enthusiast.

A peculiar mix of academia and engaging writing style of Toby wikinson has made this book best fit for any curious reader of ancient egypt. Its never easy to write a 3000 years spanning history in just over 600 something pages, but Mr. wikinson has achieved this seemingly impossible feat!

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will admit I speed-read a lot of this, looking for key words and stopping and reading in detail every now and then. It was just too much book, and the style did not gel with me very well. Still, a fascinating topic, and after reading it had much to think on, re: my fascination with Ancient Egyptian culture.

Still, I did make it genuinely through about the first 350 pages or so, before realizing I would be reading it forever if I did that.

I've been wanting to read this for ages, but it was actually kind of disappointing. While full of a ton of interesting details, extremely comprehensive and thorough, the way it was all put together did not work to make this book easy to read. The book covers the entire history of ancient Egypt, which works out to about 4500 years of history. There's no way we're getting more than a cursory glance at everything, and aside from the empire itself, there's no throughline to follow. I had the reading of this spread out over a month because I know it would be information dense, but a month actually wasn't enough. I should have bought myself a copy and read it over six months. Maybe even longer!

The main consequence of reading this book is that I have lost nearly all my fascination for ancient Egyptian culture, which has been stoked for years by romanticized (and exoticized) Hollywood portrayals. The Pharaohs were tyrants, and while their civilization is fascinating, it was also super gross. They invented civilization, sure, but they also invented totalitarianism and propaganda. The ancient engineering wonder of the pyramids mostly fades when you realize it was all just a dick measuring contest, propped up by forced labor. Also, human beings have not changed even a little bit in the last 7,500 years.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and somewhat detailed look at Ancient Egypt. I knew more about Egypt of the Ptolemies so I learned quite a bit about the Old and Middle Kingdoms. I realize this is more a 'popular' history, but that's what I was looking for.

[tara bomp · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finished reading Part 1 on the Old Kingdom and I'm not sure how much I wanted to read more.

I stopped at the start of Part 2 having this "From the Fifth Dynasty onward, Egyptian monarchs seem to have had a curious fondness for personal names that sound babyish to our ears, from Izi and Ini to Teti and Pepi, Nebi, Iti, and Ibi. Perhaps this tells us something about the cosseted atmosphere inside the royal apartments." Which just struck me as kind of pathetic. An establishment English guy mocking the names of other cultures as childish, very original. It adds nothing.

On its own it's just a really minor thing but I just found his approach totally lacking so far. He basically only talks about the pharaohs and their big monuments - there's minimal stuff about the ordinary people and how the society actually functions. Instead he just reminds you every paragraph about how absolutely everything he's talking about is a result of (or in the case of religion and art, justifying) pharaonic absolutist despotism. You get it after the first few times and it doesn't actually add anything. He seems completely uninterested in how a single court was able to assert such power over a long territory from such an early date. In general there's quite a strange tone he uses in talking about Ancient Egypt. He brings up modern authoritarian states as a comparison multiple times, but more in a polemic way than analysis - it comes across as a weird need to put Ancient Egypt down rather than an attempt to talk about class society and the violence of domination. Even when he talks about specific things they often strike me as quite strange. For example, in this paragraph:

"The personnel of Neferirkara’s temple served on a monthly rota, and at the beginning of each thirty-day period the members of staff coming on duty were required to carry out a thorough inspection of the temple and its contents. The building itself was examined for damage, and each piece of furniture or equipment was checked against a detailed inventory, arranged systematically by material, shape, and size. One sheet of papyrus lists items made from stone and flint. Under the heading “crystalline stone,” subheading “bowls,” category “white,” an inspector has noted “various repairs to rim and base, and to sides.” A blade of flint is recorded as having “chips missing, having been dropped,” while a small silver offering table was found in an equally parlous state, “badly split; loose joints; corroded.” The fact that these inspections took place just fifty years after Neferirkara’s death shows how quickly items of temple equipment could become damaged. Apparently, regular inspection and recording was more important than actually looking after the items in question. Style over substance, impression over action—an all-too-common phenomenon in societies hamstrung by bureaucracy."

It's not clear why inspections revealing issues with items *50 years after they were placed in the temple* is a sign of an ineffective bureaucracy. The last line feels like a polemical aside addressed at modern societies, although I'm not sure what the angle is. It's a strange bit of commentary on a society which had created an impressive bureaucracy able to mobilise huge amounts of resources to make monuments that are unbelievable even now. Of course this happened through oppression, but it's hard to describe it as the society being "hamstrung".

In addition, it's strange to take this attitude but then (as I said) barely talk about the common people and reduce the history to simply a succession of monarchs and their monuments and memorials with no broader societal picture in any way. You can only cover so much in a book surveying so long, but his choice of what to cover so far feels bad. I feel all I've learned about the Old Kingdom is "They built the pyramids" which, well... yes! I knew that.

I think actually the worst sign that makes me not want to read any more is seeing this in the intro of Part 2:

"In the political sphere, the shock of civil war and its lingering aftermath prompted a security clampdown and the introduction of repressive measures throughout the Nile Valley. Despotic, autocratic rule was the prevailing zeitgeist of the the Middle Kingdom. More than any other period of pharaonic history, it challenges our rose-tinted view of ancient Egypt."

He has spent a large amount of space declaring every single pharaoh since the very first recorded name as an example of despotic, autocratic rule, with every pharaoh apparently being increasingly autocratic and despotic even though the first guy was already out here doing human sacrifices. I'm not sure how much escalation there can be, but I already got the message and would rather actually learn something else.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable and through romp through the entire history of ancient Egypt, and I could not help but pause at several points along the way to think about the strong continuity shown in this history between ancient and modern events. The author himself marvels at it from time to time, using the famous French phrase "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" (The more things change the more they stay the same) to describe his own feelings.

Given current events in Egypt, I found much in this long but well-written history particularly fascinating, and I wonder if, in the future, another historian will call the modern Egyptian efforts to throw off their recent forms of governance another "Intermediate Period" in the long, deep, and fertile history of that civilization.

After reading this book, I am truly impressed by just how Arab the country has become since its long ago pharaonic days. I wonder if this Arab overlay over their native culture is truly unshakable, or if, like the Christian overlay they once had, they will find themselves shaking it off in their next dynasty, and reverting to something more in line with their own place in the modern world and perhaps, with their own underlying ancient and robust culture.

If history is any guide, then the next stable government to arise and restore order in Egypt will be headed by another strong dictator who will arise from their military but have the backing of their religious leaders, and will further be backed either openly or secretly by a powerful foreign country or coalition whose gain will be to exploit Egypt for their own benefit and to the continued impoverishment and enslavement of most ordinary Egyptians. The Egyptians will regain a law-and-order society, but at what cost?

Whether modern Egypt can achieve prosperity free of being robbed by powerful foreigners is possible for this ancient land at the current time is unlikely - there are too many great powers in play looking greedily at the remaining resources in that part of the world. And Egypt is not strong enough or rich enough to play at that level right now, other than as a pawn. Some powers are just rising to the top (like ancient China, rising to predominance once again), while some are struggling to hang on (like the US and its "western" allies) and will see Egypt as a valuable "counter" in the international game of King of the Hill that is nearly as ancient as civilization itself. Egypt has been exploited by foreign powers for so long now, I wonder if it is even possible for their people to actually reclaim some measure of their ancient independence and predominance on the world stage - or are they so used to overt or covert foreign dominance as a precursor of having a well-ordered society that they cannot now summon any image of life as a truly free people and keep order at the same time.

[Yair Zumaeta Acero · Rating 5 out of 5]

¿Cómo no otorgarle 5 estrellas al libro que me permitió recorrer y salir invicto de los desordenadamente kafkianos pero sublimemente preciosos pasillos del Museo Egipcio? Leerlo me concedió la posibilidad de no perderme entre marismas de nombres, dinastías, períodos, reinados y múltiples "Ramsés" mientras recorría el Valle del Nilo de norte a sur y comprendía que las maravillas de Giza, Saqqara, Abidos, Dendera, Luxor, el Valle de los Reyes, Edfu, Medinet Habu, Kom Ombo o Abu Simbel son más que ruinas bonitas para tomar fotos y que detrás de ellas hay siglos y siglos de la historia de una civilización que duró tres milenios y que fue el primer pueblo en compartir una cultura y una identidad dentro de un territorio definido y bajo una autoridad política común... lo que hoy llamamos "Nación" nació pues hace 4.900 años en el Valle del Nilo mientras por ejemplo en la "iluminada" Europa jugaban con piedras y palitos.

El autor de esta maravillosa obra es el profesor de egiptología de Cambridge Toby Wilkinson quien realiza una titánica labor al tratar de compendiar en 700 páginas tres milenios de historia en las que se desarrollaron XXXI dinastías (más la Dinastía Macedónica y el período Ptolemaico) a partir de los últimos hallazgos arqueológicos y conclusiones académicas, algo que se agradece en una rama como la egiptología que es tan cambiante considerando que en Egipto todos los días encuentran algún yacimiento arqueológico nuevo.

Sin embargo la extraordinaria labor de síntesis no sería nada sin la precisa capacidad narrativa del autor para discurrir por los siglos de manera fluida y amena mientras que siguiendo un orden cronológico nos cuenta la historia de una civilización que además de la impresionante capacidad para construir monumentos ciclópeos que superaron la barrera del tiempo; contaron en sus cortes con los ingredientes picantes que sólo el poder absoluto puede ofrecer: Gobernantes fastuosos, intrigas dinásticas, luchas familiares por el poder, asesinatos, reyes guerreros, batallas épicas, pueblos rivales sometidos, héroes y villanos, faraones despóticos, mujeres poderosas... mejor que cualquier libro de novela histórica...

La edición en español de "Debate" es una absoluta maravilla, con mapas, láminas a color y apéndices cronológicos para que el lector no se pierda entre las arenas de tantos años, nombres y reinados. Un libro perfecto para comprender a nivel macro la historia del antiguo Egipto e incluso para tomarlo como punto de partida de lecturas y estudios más concretos frente a Períodos, Dinastías o Faraones. Un texto que logra rescatar de las arenas de tiempo y el olvido de manera vívida e interesante la vida y obra de grandes personajes como Narmer, Zoser, Seneferu, Keops, Kefrén, Mentuhotep II, Tutmosis III, la reina Hatshepsut, Amenhotep III, Akenatón, Nefertiti, el gran Ramsés II, Merenptah, Seti I o Ramses III.