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(More customer reviews)"Seventy Great Mysteries of Ancient Egypt" is an unusual book - a collection of seventy very condensed essays (4-5 pages each) about pre-dynastic Egypt, Egyptian burial practices, kingship, history and religion, and the Bible. The book is quite well produced, with numerous color photographs.
The organization of this book is highly innovative. Most books on ancient civilizations can be classified either as histories (example: Peter Clayton's "Chronicles of the Pharaohs") or as topical studies (example: Barbara Watterson's "Gods of Ancient Egypt.") This book is radically different. It begins, like all true learning, with questions: Who was Nefertiti? Was the Exodus myth or reality? Who robbed the Valley of the Kings? The FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) has long been a staple of computer science, but I have seldom seen it applied so thoughtfully and so well to the study of an ancient civilization.
You'd think that a book like this might be both narrow (only 70 questions? Come on!) and shallow (only 4-5 pages per question!) But actually neither is the case. In terms of coverage, Egyptian art and sociology (especially non-royal women and the working class) are slighted, but other than that, the book's essays sample a remarkable variety of Egyptian life and culture. The covered topics include basic information about ancient Egypt ("Were the pyramids built by slaves?"), ongoing investigations ("The Sea Peoples: raiders of refugees?"), popular/fringe topics ("Are the pyramids aligned with the stars?"), and a few obscure but interesting things that I, at least, had never heard of before ("Khababash, the guerrilla king.")
As for depth of coverage, in a few short pages per topic the authors are not able to get into much detail (thousands of book-length studies have been written just about Nefertiti, for example), but on the other hand, the authors have read those thousands of books so that we don't have to; their essays are accurate, reliable, absolutely up to date (as of 2003), and - because they are written by experts in each topic - will contain some information that even other Egyptologists may not be aware of.
Whether you are a beginner or expert on Egypt, there is sure to be something in this very innovative book to please and delight you. Highly recommended!
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