Valley of the Golden Mummies

Rating:
Summary: Coffee Table Book
Review: It is indeed a good coffee table book (as another reviewer said). It's a beautiful & informative piece & often sparks conversation. ....a nice book to add to your collection!!

Rating:
Summary: Coffee Table Book
Review: This was an interesting book and covered a number of topics involving the find of the Golden Mummies. However, it is more of a coffee table book than a serious tome on the subject.

Rating:
Summary: Coffee Table Book
Review: This was an interesting book and covered a number of topics involving the find of the Golden Mummies. However, it is more of a coffee table book than a serious tome on the subject.

Rating:
Summary: Valley of the Golden Mummies
Review: You can not totally appreciate the book and photos unless you have been there. I was there in April/2001 and it was beyond words. The book is an outstanding document of the oasis area.

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Summary: Experience an Ancient Excavation Thru Breathtaking Photos
Review: Zahi Hawass was director general of Giza, Saqqara, Imbaba, and Bahariya Oasis who was concentrating his excavations at the Giza Pyramids, particularly the Tombs of the Pyramid Builders, when the Golden Mummies were discovered in the Bahariya Oasis in 1996. Then on, his efforts shifted to this new discovery. So far, over 100 complete Greco-Roman period mummies have been uncovered at Bahariya ranging in status from wealthy gold-encased merchants to the carelessly prepared poor. Hawass believes up to ten thousand mummies will eventually be discovered in a fifty year excavation (pg. 16). Many questions may be answered from these discoveries concerning the influence of Greek and Roman rule on Egyptian life (pg. 18).

Hawass gives the reader some insight on what it is like to be part of the excavation. Digging up black sand, for example, is an indication that one is getting close to a mummy (pg. 33). He describes the overpowering smells one experiences when uncovering a mummy that has been under the sand for thousands of years and what it is like to be brushing away and then to suddenly be greeted by the stare of an obsidian eye (pg. 53). He describes a mummy being prepared for transport and his own experience with the curse of the mummies forcing him to send the father of two child mummies to the museum to reunite the family (chapter 6).

Besides the golden mummies, other amazing discoveries in Bahariya are detailed in this book including an ancient wine factory (the first of its kind to be discovered), temples to the God of Bes and Hercules, and the only temple honoring Alexander the Great known to exist. Hawass describes the history of Bahariya as well as daily life as it exists today. Then, of course, there are the hundreds of breathtaking color photographs of the unique mummies, temples, and artifacts found at the sites. Because the sites described in this book are still under excavation, the defnitive book on the Valley of the Golden Mummies is yet to come and, if the author is correct, will take fifty years to complete. Still, the book offers interesting info on the sites up to this point in time although some of the copious details of mummies and artifacts gets tedious, especially in the last chapters. The book is 223 pages and includes an index, bibliography, and chronology of Egyptian rulers.