64 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An intellectual and visual delight, October 18, 2000
This review is from: Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt, Revised Edition (Cultural Atlas Series) (Hardcover)
This is the second edition of one of the finest summations of ancient Egyptian civilization ever written for the general reader. Not only is this an exellent introduction to many aspects of Egypt, it is a visual delight. The maps, especially, configure in the reader's mind spacial relationships and their cultural implications. Other illustrations of temple precincts and related architectural elements of Egyptian life supplement the excellent writing, written for, but never "down to" non-specialists. If I were to own only one reference work on ancient Egypt, this would be the one.
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent maps and illustrations, February 22, 2005
This review is from: Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt, Revised Edition (Cultural Atlas Series) (Hardcover)
As Baines and Malek explained in their introduction, they attempted to make this atlas useful for those readers who might plan to travel to Egypt and visit the ancient sites. The authors made good on this claim by devoting over half of the atlas to a section entitled "A Journey Down the Nile", which provides a survey of ancient sites that are encountered while traveling down the Nile from Elephantine towards the Delta. Archaeological finds are briefly introduced for each location through a combination of discussion, illustrations, and frequent maps. Since this part of the atlas is organized according to geography (south to north along the Nile), sites from different historical periods are inevitably mixed together, which leads to a confusing sequence of, for example, Ptolemaic temples followed by New Kingdom tombs followed by Predynastic graves and so on. While this arrangement might be useful as a travel guide of sorts, armchair travelers (like myself) who expect a continuous development of ideas may be disappointed. Perhaps if the authors had organized their "Journey" chronologically as well as geographically, this atlas would have had more of an impact on its readership, especially when reinforced by the plethora of photos, illustrations, and maps that are present.
Despite this misgiving, I thought that the short articles that constitute the remainder of the atlas were informative and interesting. Topics covered in these articles include Egyptian art, religion, and writing, among others. And of course, numerous photos and diagrams are provided that are a pleasure in and of themselves.
As far as I'm concerned, the major strengths of the "Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt" are the excellent historical maps, the floor diagrams of the major sites, and the visual delight provided by the beautiful photos. Although the geographical framework is a limitation, the strengths outweigh the weaknesses, and this book will probably be able to satisfy the "Egyptomania" fix of many readers.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A well written and illustrated description of egyptian history, September 17, 2005
This review is from: Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt, Revised Edition (Cultural Atlas Series) (Hardcover)
This book reads well, in a subject area where turgid prose is the rule. It begins with topical sections giving a good overview, each of which can be read in an hour or two. Then it proceeds on a journey down the length of the Nile. Although I needed to read more specialized books, at the price of turgid prose, to delve deeply into some aspects of Egyptian prehistory, I regret that I had not started with this one. This book will do nicely as the ONLY or the FIRST book on Egypt in one's library, depending upon one's needs. Having read several books on Egypt previously ,which lacked good maps, the topical maps in this book justify the entire expense.
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