Customer Reviews

Tutankhamun: The Eternal Splendor of the Boy Pharaoh

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This is a giant 10" x 14" coffee table book filled with brilliant close-up color photos of many of the famous, and not so famous, artifacts from the tomb. There are only three chapters: 1) Tutankhamun and his times; (2) The Discovery of the Tomb and, the largest, (3) A Treasure Above All Treasures. Each object is accompanied by a brief description of its significance including size and Howard Carter's excavtion dig number. The photos are not "standard issue" as seen in most books, but are new and fresh by the renowned photographer A. DeLuca. A few fold-outs include a cut-away view of all the tombs contents (in color) and a fantastic shot of Tut's solid gold inner coffin.

Though there are a lot of books on Tutankhamun, this one is a great photographic account in color. If you are interested in seeing the detail of the treasures up-close, demonstrating the tremendous skills of ancient Egyptian craftsman, this book is for you. It's fun and informative for anyone wanting to see these great works without having to travel to Egypt. MUCH better than the Tut exhibit guide "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" by Zahi Hawass.

This is the one! Trash all your other King Tut books that claim to offer "unprecedented access" or "astonishingly complete catalogue of treasures" or some such. I have never before seen--nor do I ever expect to--page after page of eye-dazzling, heart-stopping treasures. Gold, gold, GOLD! Precious stones! Carnelian, faience, turquoise, jet! To complete the packaging, the first eighty pages present a very strong, tightly written synopsis of the discovery of the tomb and its aftermath, including the quirky personalities involved. Not to be missed is the remarkable orthographic diagram of the tomb layout that makes the spatial relationship among the various tomb chambers crystal-clear. The author also provides original 1922 photographs (black and white, of course) of the various chambers in their original higgledy-piggledy condition. You won't be disappointed with even the least conceivable aspect of this monumental opus. Five stars!!

This book is breathtaking! The color photographs are knockouts. By far the best possible catalog of the Tutankhamun treasures. The text is most useful and informative. We saw both visits of the treasures in Los Angeles and came away overwhelmed,feeling that our experience was all too ephemeral. Here we can study the large, detailed photos--most of the items which did not travel--and really appreciate the true extent of the find. I highly suggest anyone interested in Egypt purchase this remarkable book.

This beautiful book, with magnificent glossy photographs of Tutankhamen's sarcophagus, shrines, coffins, shabati etc. etc. is the next best thing to owning the treasures yourself. The authors have also included photographs of lesser known art pieces composed of carved wood and stone. As you probably know, the tomb had been entered by grave robbers during ancient times but then, again in ancient times, resealed presumably by guards located in the Valley of the Kings. With this in mind, the authors offer a fascinating insight. A beautiful carved wooden shabat was found buried in the rubble filling the entrance tunnel to the tomb. Apparently the robbers had left it there as of little value. If such is true, it is probable that there wasn't an antiquarian relic market in ancient Egypt. The robbers were probably only after precious metals, stones and jewelry. Probably this should come as no surprise despite the fact that these beautiful little shabati would now be worth a great deal.

The text of this book, giving Howard Carter's history, is useful, as is the text that runs throughout the book. This pictoral book does suffer, in my opinion, from the same problem as many magazines. The text itself is rather choppy because of the problem of showing voluminous photos with descriptive captions. Too bad but perhaps inevitable.

I do wish, however, that the authors had discussed and speculated on the ancient robbery. Do they think the tomb robbers were captured? Do they think that stolen items were recovered and returned to the tomb? They strongly imply that many highly valuable items were stolen and NOT returned--but--how do they know? The various chambers of the tomb seemed to be chock-full of valuable items.

If the robbers weren't captured, why didn't they return and clean the tomb out as thoroughly as every other Royal tomb ever discovered? If the robbers were captured isn't it probable that the stolen goods were recovered and returned?

Personally, I think a text concerning ancient Egyptian tomb robbery--techniques, motives, individuals--is a volume whose time has come. When you see how much gold was recovered from King Tut's tomb it makes me wonder if much of this precious metal was simply recycled--certain Pharaohs may have commissioned robbers to steal the gold of their ancestors. Given the supposedly highly religious nature of ancient Egyptians such sacrilege might seem improbable--but was it? Obviously the robbers themselves must have swallowed their religious scruples to obtain wealth. Why not certain Pharaohs, especially if the occasional one was a secret agnostic or atheist.