Customer Reviews

House of Eternity: The Tomb of Nefertari (Conservation and Cultural Heritage)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Books about Ancient Egypt usually deal with her Pharaoh's, the State Religion, Ancient Monuments or art treasures . Little is known about most of the Queens of Ancient Egypt. The better known queens, Hatchepsut and Cleopatra ruled in their own right. Nefertari was the principle wife of one of Ancient Egypt's greatest Pharaoh's, Ramesses the Great. Ramesses built many temples and monuments during his long reign, some of which are still standing today including the Ramesseum, and the two Temple's at Abu Simbel. The smaller temple was dedicated to Nefertari. Very few temples or monuments were dedicated to anyone but the Pharaoh or one of the many Gods. The book " House of Eternity, The Tomb of Nefertari" tells as much of the story of Queen Nefertari as is known today. The Tomb of Nefertari is one of the most beautiful surviving monuments of Pharaonic Egypt. Since the Tomb was discovered in 1904, much damage has been caused by tourists. The tomb was closed to the public and preservation of the artwork undertaken by the Getty Institute. The tomb was re-opened to the public in 1995.. This book gives the reader a guided tour of the Tomb. The pictures in the book are spectacular.The author John McDonald takes the reader through the construction and decoration of the tomb, and then guides the reader through the journey into the Egyptian afterlife undertaken by Nefertari. The pictures on the tomb walls are from the Book of the Dead and the meaning of each is explained as Nefertari travels from the doorway of her tomb to her final resting place. I would rate this book as an essential addition to the library of anyone seriously interested in the history of Ancient Egypt and would advise anyone planning to visit the Tomb to read the book before hand.

The book begins with chapters describing the context of the life of Nefertari and of her tomb. The final chapter, about half of the book, is a tour through the tomb, explaining the pictures and text on the walls. These pictures are almost entirely of Nefertari and the divinities she would meet in the afterlife. No pictures of day-to-day life here.

The book is profusely illustrated. Out of the 120 pages, the Getty Museum claims there are 89 color and 12 black-and-white illustrations. I haven't counted them myself, but the numbers seem right -- most pages have color illustrations on them, and many pages consist entirely of such illustrations. I would estimate that about 80% of the wall surface of the tomb is shown.

love the book, but wish it had more complete photos of the entire tomb. seeing the tomb in pieces as it were, makes it difficult to imagine how it really is.

Beautiful book. Trying to get tickets NOW for a tour of her tomb on our trip in Feb. 2003.

In none of the editorial or customer reviews, nor in any part of the amazon page on this book, is there a very elementary and crucial bit of information -- how many color illustrations does this book contain? It might be 4. It might be 20. Who knows? But none of the reviewers, nor amazon, sees fit to let prospective buyers know. Buy at your own risk, I guess. Since neither the book info, nor Amazon, tells us how many color illustrations, perhaps the number is quite modest. I rate this book as four stars to give it the benefit of the doubt -- but without the critical information, I haven't wanted to buy it, so can't really say what it should be rated.