Customer Reviews

Valley of the Kings

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Having reviewed this book once before but seeing that my review is lacking in the official standings, one more time I must sing this work's praise. It is an exquisite masterpiece, spending time on many of the lesser known tombs and their excavators; a much more complete synopsis of the Valley than N. Reeves' "The Complete Calley of the Kings." Within is perhaps the best examination of KV55 that I have yet to encounter outside the works of the great Cyril Aldred. True, their is the usual chapter on Tutankhamun, but in John's case it is there in reference to the whole of the Carter/Carnarvon excavations. An indespensible reference work and mentioned in all the bibliographies I can think of, it gives me great pleasure to be the first to (again) review this book, and I implore you to second my review by embarking on one of your own.

It isn't hard to make Egyptology interesting; the lure of uncovering history preserved for thousands of years, the glint of gold, the confrontation with death and with a culture that seemingly embraced it have all captivated the attention of generations. This book is no exception. It presents a chronological history of excavation in the Valley of the Kings, both describing the finds and introducing the varied cast of treasure hunters, archaeologists, and entrepreneurs who discovered them. It is a book primarily about Egyptology, rather than of Egyptology, neither idolizing nor absolving the early excavators. Romer's love for the ancient Egyptians shines through his record of history every time he describes their art or architecture. This is the book's main drawback, as Romer's enthusiastic portrayal of the beauties of the valley inspires a desire to see that is not sufficiently served by the book's few plates and smattering of tomb layouts. I wanted so much more, more pictures and more layouts, maps of the valley, etc. Otherwise thoroughly enjoyable, this book made me long for a trip to Egypt.

This is the place to go if you want to know anything about the Valley of Kings in Egypt. Mr. Romers love of the Past is quite clear. His presentation of the facts is well organized and on the whole presented in an interesting way. I just hope that he gets around to doing one of his excellent documentaries in DVD soon on the Valley of Kings!

I enjoyed reading this book a lot, for I had been before in Egypt on a summer holiday, and it was very inspiring indeed to reminisce places and facts that I'd been at or learned about.

It is a well written and entertaining overview of general historic achievements and gives you a rough idea of the development of archaelogical research in Egypt.

I read afterwards "The lost tomb" by K. R. Weeks, and it was interesting and amusing to retrace from one book to the other the tomb that had been hardly discovered and sketched at the beginning of the 20th Century and thence lost for decades (although the book of Mr. Weeks is too self-conscious, you can always skip the first chapters).

I recommend it.

This guy could not punctuate his way out of a paper bag. It's very detailed, but the writing is atrocious.