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The Royal Tombs of Egypt: The Art of Thebes Revealed Hardcover – November 27, 2006
The Valley of the Kings is famous throughout the world as the burial place of the great New Kingdom pharaohs. It was here, in 1922, that Howard Carter stumbled upon the virtually intact tomb of the boy-king, Tutankhamun. And here, in recent months, that archaeologists discovered a new tomb with its wooden sarcophagi, painted funeral masks, and alabaster jars.
The royal tombs, tunneled into the Theban cliffs, represented both gates to the Netherworld and the womb of the Great Goddess. Many of them contain wall paintings of the king with various gods and goddesses, as well as papyri, mummies, decorated coffins, and other artifacts.
This is the first book to reproduce the wall paintings and murals in full. It explores in great detail the most deeply-held beliefs of the ancient kings and queens who are buried here, beliefs that provided the impetus for the building, decoration, and equipping of these magnificent tombs. Beautifully illustrated in full color, with thirty foldouts, it allows the reader to join the pharaohs of the New Kingdom on their journeys to immortality. 300+ color illustrations, including 30 foldouts.
- Print length316 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThames & Hudson
- Publication dateNovember 27, 2006
- Dimensions10.63 x 1.18 x 12.28 inches
- ISBN-100500513228
- ISBN-13978-0500513224
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- Publisher : Thames & Hudson (November 27, 2006)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 316 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0500513228
- ISBN-13 : 978-0500513224
- Item Weight : 5.56 pounds
- Dimensions : 10.63 x 1.18 x 12.28 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #880,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #831 in Ancient Egyptians History
- #70,797 in Reference (Books)
- #82,993 in Arts & Photography (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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To my dismay the quality of the print was substandard. If I wanted a bad picture of King Tut's tomb I would travel to Egypt myself and take a horrible snapshot of it. This book will not disappoint you. For years I had been searching for a comprehensive large format photo book that shows well-known and lesser-known tomb murals. There are fold-outs of lesser known murals in famous tombs that are simply
marvelous. I spent the better part of two hours (maybe more...) totally immersed in this book. I felt that I time traveled though this book.
Then again, I do have a wild imagination.
The reproductions of the wall paintings and numerous foldouts that emphasize them even more are spectacular.
I would buy this along with The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, available in paperback through Amazon. This history will give you the context in which this book was composed.
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What the book is NOT is a guide to the tombs of the Valley of the Kings. There are no plans of tombs, and no systematic descriptions of the decoration of individual tombs. You won’t find, for example, a description of the overall decoration of the tomb of Ramesses III here. If you’re looking for such a book I’d recommend “The Complete Valley of the Kings”, by Reeves and Wilkinson.
What you get in this book, by way of contrast, is an excellent discussion of royal tomb decoration arranged thematically. There’s a chapter on each of the main “books of the underworld” of the Egyptian New Kingdom, and how it’s used in the decoration of different tombs. So in the chapter about the underworld book called the Amduat (the “book of what is in the underworld”), for example, you find a lot of excellent pictures of the various depictions of the Amduat in different royal tombs, but most of the pictures don’t tell you which tomb they’re from!
As long as you’re aware of this when buying, I recommend this book wholeheartedly.
A truly excellent book. Suitable for serious study and simply to enjoy the photography. I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.




