Customer Reviews

Temple of Karnak: The Majestic Architecture of Ancient Kemet

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This book is a disappointment! It is almost entirely exerpts taken from other books. When the author does seem to write his own copy, its confusing and has poorly formulated diction and punctuation. Take page16 - 4th paragraph: "Splended dwelling, your second colonade abuts Thutmose III's sixth or first pylon enclosing the Hall of Records lising his 17 campaigns" (what??) or (same page 3rd paragraph) "Lord of Praises, the modern third, ancient fourth, pylon of Amenhotep III, the "magnificent", Enclose the central court" (punctuation and capitalized words verbatim).
In various areas Horemheb is spelled as: Horemhab, Haremhab.

All pictures are disappointingly in black and white and many are not current photos, as they appear today (and this was published in 2007!) Many of the diagrams are photos of pages taken from other books with the opposite page bleeding thru, which makes it confusing to decipher. Some of the diagrams have been reduced so its difficult to read the fine print, and many of the pictures are too dark, too poorly contrasted or too blurry to be of any real use. This would NOT make an "indispensible travel guide" due to the fact the pictures and diagrams are so poorly represented.

For Egyptophyles, this is redundant information. No new ground broken here. I would have liked to see more of the authors work, not just a book filled with quotations from other books.
This book would be ok for someone who doesnt know anything about Karnak or Egypt and wants a book to read.

On closer examination of the book, I find the errors described in K. Sloper's Review of "Temple of Karnak: The Majestic Architecture of Ancient Kemet," to be inaccurate! If these errors he points to on p. 16 actually existed in a previous printing of this book, such certainly does not exist in the copy I now possess. Frankly, this is a useful book for the traveler and student and any inaccuracies within are greatly counterbalanced by the extensive and comprehensive examination of the principal features the author helps to capture.

When the "Temple of Karnak" was discussed in the Temple of Karnak, Egypt, the guide quickly pointed out, "Much more information and knowledge is contained in the `Poem to Amon-Ra,' than in many similar books on the market." Coupled with `Poem to the Temple of Karnak,' the fundamental layout of the architecture is detailed in a wonderful manner any visitor could find informative. Together, these two poems bring to modernity much of the philosophical and esoteric views that characterized the ancient Egyptian mentality, belief system and ritual practice, from Middle and New Kingdom onwards. Extensive examination of the principal architectural features coupled with accompanying "older plans and illustrations," paint a comprehensive description of this majestic structure any visitor will find useful. The 125 photographs in black and white reinforce the views portrayed in the artistic decoration and literary details. The author's use of ancient orientation in conjunction with modern description of the temple's geography is novel and philosophically enlightening. Besides a "Concluding Perspective," the author supplies "A Second Look" with description and accompanying bibliography, which reinforces the general frame of reference he seeks to achieve. The extensive English bibliography is to facilitate research to more correctly portray the temple for future appreciation.