Fascinating Hieroglyphics: Discovering, Decoding & Understanding the Ancient Art (Paperback)

by Christian Jacq (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
For centuries not a person alive could decipher the famed ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Then a few experts began to understand how a single figure could be a picture, a symbol, and a sound all at once. You can join the ranks of those who can read hieroglyphs, and even create sentences of your own, with this ingeniously simple guide. It's the most complete introduction available, yet it's amazingly easy to understand. With best-selling author Christian Jacq as your guide, uncover the mystery that baffled the greatest minds of the ages--how the Egyptians first invented hieroglyphics, why it became a forgotten language, and how linguists and other detectives stumbled onto a remarkable code-breaking carving. Best of all you'll learn to read secret messages and inscriptions taken from royal tombs that reveal the profound ideas of these highly evolved cultures. If you can follow a book or tape on a foreign language, you can master the principles of reading hieroglyphics--and reward yourself with valuable insights into a totally different way to communicate with other human beings. 224 pages, 39 b/w illus., 6 x 9. NEW IN PAPERBACK


Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Sterling (December 31, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806986999
• ISBN-13: 978-0806986999
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #889,592 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Accessible and intrigueing, August 17, 2000

By	Amarna (Adelaide, SA Australia) - See all my reviews

Despite other reviews of this book, I have read it and believe that Jacq achieves all of his basic aims. Does he not state on the first page that you will NOT be able to read hieroglyphs with ease by reading the book? Rather, you would gain a basic understanding of the language, complexity and history involved. Jacq uses accessible language and the odd touch of humour to make his book both entertaining and informative. The naive expectations that others have entered a book such as this with have resulted in it not being properly represented. Therefore, I am setting the record straight by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it most beneficial!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Diffculty Decoding, February 6, 2000

By	Gerald J. Gambale (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

I recently completed the above named book and am still in the dark on decoding the Hieroglyphics. However,I did come away with how complex the ancient Egyptians were. I will once again tackle the book and probably walk away with the basic fundamentals of Hieroglyphics. I recently visited the Metropolitan Museum in New York City and they had an exhibit on Ancient Egypt, and to my surprise, I was able to decipher a small portion of the hieroglyphics.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Non-essential, February 5, 2000

By	Shadowfire (College Park, MD) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Fascinating Hieroglyphics is an inferior work. Despite the claims to "teach the reader how to read hierogliphics", the book's author merely throws more and more symbols at you, seemingly without any organization or concept, rather than through any useful system, and later refers the reader to one of the more respectable works in the field. The "alphabet" in the beginning barely begins to cover a small portion of the Egyptian monophonics, and the hieroglyphs that ARE shown are merely noted for one or two of their multi-faceted meanings, rather than revealing the leading concept of the symbol. If you want to gain some basic grounding in reading hieroglyphs, choose some other work. I would refer you to Rossini's Hieroglyphs, unfortunately out of print, which actually tackles the subject head on rather than weaves its way out of the obligations it puts up.