Ramesses: Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh

Rating:
Summary: A quick and informative read
Review: I picked up this book at the local B&N and I couldn't put it down - b4 i knew it I had already read the first chapter at the bookstore and had to buy it! This is a good book on Ramses II and the period in which he reigned - it's really well researched and the author presents it a well-organized manner. The author offers some nice descriptions and details about the Ramesside monuments I had not heard before. It made me want to hop the next plane to Egypt! It also has a nice list of books of further reading. I can't wait to pick up Tyldesly's "Daughters of Isis" or her book about Hatshepsut!

Rating:
Summary: A Hero Demythologized (and Defumigated Too)
Review: Ramses the Great may, as the title claims, have been the Greatest Pharoah, but perhaps it is more accurate to describe him as Egypt's Last Great Pharoah. Coming towards the start of the New Kingdom (that of Seti the Great), Ramses is credited with restoring peace with Assyria and restabilizing the borders. He may also have been the Ramses of Exodus, though the Egyptian recollection of this (perhaps unsurprisingly) is less fulsome than the Canaanites'. Tyldesley writes in an extremely approachable, literate way and avoids whenever possible the extremes of Egyptology-speak. She also gives a fascinating update on the state of Ramses' mummy - including rather macarbre deatails of its recent fumigation by the French. Apparently gamma rays were involved (which fuels the most lurid of B-movie fantasies. Don't worry -he's still dead.)