Customer Reviews

The Pyramids: The Mystery, Culture, and Science of Egypt's Great Monuments

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Verner notes that the name "sphinx" is our transliteration of the Greek transliteration of shesep-ankh or "living image". He also recounts how "[t]he ship Beatrice... in 1838, shipwrecked and sank between Malta and Spain." (p 246) Aboard was the sarcophagus from the Menkaure / Mycerinus pyramid (the smallest of the three large pyramids at Giza). That would be a salvage job for the ages, and a great way for a museum to add to its collection. I do however wonder if that's really where the ship went down. Some even dispute that the ship ever existed per se, or that it went down, or that it went down in that year, or that it had the sarcophagus onboard.

The author rejects the high age of the Great Sphinx that was proved by the water erosion -- a point on which most geologists (the overwhelming majority) who have studied the evidence agree. His rejection is on the flimsiest basis, especially since the Sphinx itself is not aligned with the so called cardinal points while most stuff at Giza is -- but that the also predynastic temple near the Sphinx has the same alignment. Verner insists that the consensus is that Khafre carved the Sphinx, but later writes "(Khufu?)" and nowhere that I saw mentions Stadelman's establishment that the Sphinx was probably carved by Khufu.

I read chunks of this book last night, and recommend it as a pretty good overview of the known pyramids, including those which barely survive (foundations only, or literary references with little else). The author also gives brief information about the pharaohs and others for whom many of these (surviving or not) were built.

It's the definitive book on the subject.Great text,clear illustrations.

I am considering a trip to Egypt and wanted a book that gives an overview of archaeological sites in Egypt. This is a detailed and theoretical book about the many pyramids found all over Egypt. The author does try to write in a way to make it fairly readable to a lay person. But it is still heavy reading. It may be more that what some people are looking for... I read the beginning and ending chapters of the book, but only skimmed the middle. My eyes "glazed over", and much of the middle was just more fact and detail than I wanted to know. The beginning and ending chapters are more general about Egyptology. The book does contain many diagrams, photos (black and white), and illustrations that help the detailed info be more easy to visualize and understand.

This was exactly what I was looking for in a book about the Egyptian pyramids. This book is the perfect starting point for anyone to begin learning about Egyptian pyramids and ancient Egypt in general.

A warning to everyone interested in colored pictures. This book has NOT ONE single color picture, except for the cover pic. The theoretical content is great stuff, otherwise, I'm dissapointed. If your interested mainly in pictures, you better take a look at "The Valley of the Kings" and "Tuthankamum, the eternal splendor of the boy Pharaoh"