The Rough Guide History of Egypt [Paperback]

Rough Guides (Author)

Book Description

Series: Rough Guide Histories | Publication Date: June 23, 2003

In the course of its long and remarkable history, Egypt has helped to lay the foundations of Western civilization and has become a cornerstone of Islam. This guide provides a concise overview of the whole 5000-year span, with a time-line that takes you from the period before the pharaohs to the present day. The guide features sidebars ranging from the Great Pyramid of Cheops to the Suez Canal crisis. Topics include irrigation, monasticism and Egyptian movies and there are illustrations and quotations throughout.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Haag is an experienced author and freelance writer. He is also the author of the Rough Guide History of Greece.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A NOTE ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF ANCIENT EGYPT

Starting from the unification of Egypt, the ancient Egyptians counted the years by the duration of the reigns of kings, with each new king beginning a new cycle of years. Manetho, an Egyptian priest in the 3rd century BC, arranged the kings into thirty dynasties. To these dynastic divisions of what we call the Dynastic or Pharaonic Period, Egyptologists have added a further system, grouping the dynasties into distinct periods – so that for example the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms refer to periods of strong centralized authority, while the First, Second and Third Intermediate Periods refer to those times when centralized authority dissolved. As often as not kings, monuments and artifacts are dated in books and at museums and sites not by year but by dynasty or kingdom or period.

This book makes use of all these chronological systems. For determining dates by our calendar, Egyptologists rely on a number of methods ranging from radiocarbon dating to the interpretation of ancient texts. While there is broad agreement on dates, there are some differences between one authority and another. In the chronology followed here, the dates for prehistory are approximations given in very round figures, and those for the historical period, which begins with the introduction of writing at about 3000 BC, are subject to margins of error as follows: First Dynasty, perhaps as much as one hundred and fifty years; Old Kingdom, about fifty years; New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, about ten years. Dates from 664 BC are derived mostly from written Greek sources and are precise. Note that overlapping dates for kings indicate regencies or joint rule.

KINGS’ NAMES AND TITLES

Kings usually had several names, including a praenomen (an official name) and a nomen (given at birth); following the example of most authorities they are referred to here by their nomens. Sources, however, give different spellings, and also some names are best known to us in the form used by ancient Greek writers, so that ‘Cheops’ is the Greek form of the nomen ‘Khufu’. Throughout this book an attempt has been made to use the most familiar version and spelling of a king’s name.

The Egyptian word for king was nesu; the term ‘pharaoh’ derives from the hieroglyphic per-o, meaning ‘Great House’, which was used to describe the place of the royal administration – much as we say ‘Whitehall’ or ‘the White House’. From the New Kingdom onwards (after 1550 BC), the word was applied to the king himself. Egyptologists, however, though guilty of anachronism, happily use ‘king’ and ‘pharaoh’ interchangeably from the First Dynasty onwards.

Product Details

• Paperback: 437 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides (June 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1858289408
• ISBN-13: 978-1858289403
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,716,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable, October 21, 2003

By 

Thomas T Dora (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide History of Egypt (Paperback)

There is nothing else like this: a review of five thousand years of Egyptian history. This book sets the context for everything else you might want to read; it puts eras and events into perspective. Its massive bibliography will point you in the right direction, whether you want to read up on the modern or Arab or Ptolemaic or pharaonic periods. It is clear, reliable, and very well written. I cannot recommend it highly enough -- to students, to travelers, to anyone interested in Egypt.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A chronology, not a history, August 25, 2003

By 

Eugene S. Pagano (OYSTER BAY, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rough Guide History of Egypt (Paperback)

This book is not really a history. It is more of a timeline, but one for thousands of years of Egyptian history. It will give you information about dates and events, but very little analysis.

However, I am not aware of any other book for the general reader which covers the whole span of Egypt's long and amazing history, a history which did not end with Cleopatra VII's suicide. This book is useful for the tourist or the casual reader, but not for the serious student of history.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The answer to the needs of everyone interested in Egypt, July 15, 2003

By 

Caroline Pym (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide History of Egypt (Paperback)

This is really a remarkable book, as it starts with the prehistory of Egypt, then covers three thousand years of ancient pharaonic times, and another two thousand years of Romans, Arabs and the present day -- and it never loses its detail, its readability, its reliability. No other book of this scope has ever been written, and its a godsend to all of us fascinated by Egypt that this book is available to us now. It is a must for our bookshelves, and it is designed to fit into anyone's pocket so can accompany you on your travels down the Nile, into the office, or into the university library.