The Pharaohs Master-Builders

Rating:
Summary: The Pharaohs: Master-Builders
Review: A reader might expect from its title that this book would be a history of Pharaonic architecture. Really, though, it is more of a standard history of Egypt that is illustrated with photographs and descriptions of the usual variety - pyramids, Sphinx, temples, tombs. Both the history and the photographs are competently done, but there isn't much here that is new, or that hasn't been covered as well or better in other surveys.

For me, the best part of the book is its generous selection of 19th century copies, of ancient tomb paintings, by the likes of Rosellini, Champollion, and Belzoni. This is a great idea! The copies were made when the ancient paintings were still fresh, vivid, and undamaged. The meticulous copies give us an impression of how lively and vivid the originals must once have been, before their current and unfortunate exposure to moisture, air, and tourists.

The book contains some quite annoying errors. For example, on p. 115, a painting of Isis in Horemheb's tomb is misidentified as Hathor, in spite of her speech formula that reads, "words spoken by Isis!" On page 118, the same goddess is misidentified as Nut. On p. 80, Amun is characterized as a "sun god." On p. 148, the name of Ramesses II is both transliterated and translated incorrectly.

In spite of these problems, I wound up keeping the book for its selection of tomb scenes. The publisher also deserves credit, for bringing out such a well-produced and well-illustrated book at a very reasonable price.