Customer Reviews

Egypt Lost & Found: Explorers and Travelers on the Nile

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(1)
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This large book invites opening on a coffee table and simply spreading oneself across its pages of magnificent illustrations to pore over their exquisite detail and colour. We can be transported back several centuries and share the wonder felt by the various artists as they strove to conserve, with meticulous care, copies of the ancient hieroglyphs and awe-inspiring sculptures for us to enjoy. This book is a great supplement to my present extensive library of Egyptology (I confess deep wonder and fascination for the civilisation of that place and period in human history). Much of what is shown in this book has since disappeared - demolished, decayed further, vandalised, removed piecemeal to museums far afield - other sites have been excavated from the encroaching sands or transposed to other locations. Hence it is interesting to compare today's photographs of these sites with the drawings and paintings of a century and more past of the same locations. I'm sure anyone with a feeling for the people who lived so long ago, and who worked hard to produce these enduring monuments to their culture, will not be disappointed with this superb collation.

I should have looked at the physical size of the book before I bought it. It is a coffee table book. The pictures are all drawings and water colors of artists who travelled in Egypt, no photographs. Although they are mostly beautiful, it was not as I expected. Each "traveler" gets about 6 paragraphs, hardly an in-depth history of Egyptian exploration. I can't recommend anyone spend this kind of money on the book.

Some north americans (europeans usually like) dislike to buy books full of color pages. My idea of a book on Arts, Minerals, Precious Stones and Jewelry is that it has to have all pictures in color and, if possible, full color pages. I have to see its colors, the colors the artist wants to show in his art. I like very much when I find "coffee table books" to be bought, because only this kind of books bring the same vision we see the world around us (in color).