Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the book you should buy to start your study of Egypt!, August 21, 2006
This review is from: Ancient Egypt: An illustrated reference to the myths, religions, pyramids and temples of the land of the pharaohs (Hardcover)
I bought this book because i will be visiting Egypt in the fall.Since Egypt has a lot of history i decided to buy a book that would give me a good introduction to egyptian history.From the moment i picked up this book i was inmersed in it.The book has tons of ilustrations and is very well organized.The book talks about every single aspect of ancient egyptian history without boring you with every single detail.The book is a faboulous and complete intro which makes you read and read some more about Egypt and its history.It is my opinion that this is one of the best books on ancient Egypt out there.Just fantastic!!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good coffee table material, August 3, 2005
This is one of those books that both looks good on a coffee table and has plenty of color plates to help your guests occupy some spare time. However, I am a fan of ancient Egypt and near-eastern archaeology as well, so I have also read the text, which I find to be very well written. Oakes and Gahlin have organized a fine book for someone who wants a big picture perspective on the history of the ancient Egyptians, covering everything from the Old Kingdom onward, and they even have some pretty good pre-dynastic material as well.
I find their chronologies and timelines with alternate names to be particularly useful. For instance, wihtout a listing of alternate names in a chronology, someone looking for a Pharaoh named Nebkheperure might not know to also search under King Tut.
BTW, this might also be a good time to mention that a very large collection of King Tut artifacts will be going on tour in the US this year. It's almost a once-in-a-lifetime event and nobody knows when it will happen next. The last time Tut went on tour was back in the late 70s.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Just A Coffee-Table Book, July 27, 2007
This review is from: Ancient Egypt: An illustrated reference to the myths, religions, pyramids and temples of the land of the pharaohs (Hardcover)
(This review refers to the hardback copy.) Oakes' and Gahlin's "Ancient Egypt" seems at first glance to be a typical coffee-table book, given its great length (500pp), size, and weight. I liked the huge number of color illustrations on its large-format pages. At its inexpensive remainder price, this book is an outstanding bargain for the photographs alone.
The accompanying text, that is geared to beginners, is much better than one would expect from a typical coffee-table book of this sort. The first half of the book describes in short articles many of the familiar sites (pyramids and temples) and some of the less-familiar ones (Kharga, Abu Mena). It would make a good guidebook, except that the hardback is much too large and heavy for this purpose, and there are no site maps included.
The second half of the book introduces the ancient religion of Egypt, again in short articles at a level that is good for beginners. While sound and reliable, I thought that it was a bit repetitious and not quite as entertaining as the first half of the book. Be that as it may, it is likely that many readers who are "just starting out" or curious about Egypt will like to have this book.
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