Customer Reviews

Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture (Dover Books on Architecture)

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This book is rated the classic reference on Ancient Egyptian building techniques. It covers all aspects of construction from mathematical procedures to the ways the Ancient Egyptians drilled granite and other hard stones. Various buildings and pyramids are picked out as examples for diverse techniques as well as for the purpose of providing insight into how they were built. Although getting out of date with more information having been gathered during the past 60-odd years, it is well worth reading and having as a handy reference.

A fabulously entertaining book, chock full of info found on sites in the 20's before sites were reconstructed. A "keeper" for the Egyptophile who wants some in-depth info...definitely not a book for casual reading.

Clarke and Englebach are very well versed in typical accepted means of architecture in Ancient Egypt. Though without color Photos this book has many illustrations which do in some cases help you get a sense of the immensity of some of the projects the ancients undertook. One particularly striking section refers to an unfinished granite obelisk at Aswan. The time involved in such a project is staggaring. They do a good job summing up what the committees on Ancient Egypt have all decided is the norm but advance no further, putting in very few original thoughts. The book is also seventy years old, so many of the unexcavated sites they refer to have now in fact been excavated. The authors go out of their way on several occasions to assure the reader that "pyramid cranks" should be disregarded in all forms. They however fail to explain why. Their persistant knocking of the so called pyramid cranks becomes rather annoying because whenever there is a mystery the authors waste no time in assuring us that these cranks are wrong, even if no one knows who is right, the authors don't even venture theory in many cases. But don't get me wrong, this is a good book and will help anyone get aquainted with how most structures were built and what methods they used for quarrying and so forth. Unfortunately again, whenever there is an unanswered question, Clarke and Englebach seem more ready to spout rhetoric rather than entertain any original thought. I really recommend this book even if I have some complaints because as far as actual documentation of construction, this book does go a long way.