'Lively and amusing [...] an engaging read. Ryan successfully makes this ancient civilisation more immediate and accessible.' - Current World Archaeology _____________________ '[Donald] Ryan - who has worked in and on Egypt for decades, as an archaeologist, historian and popular writer - has succeeded in bringing all of his characters to life. This is a great little volume.' - KMT Magazine _____________________ 'Very readable [...] its originality lies in the clever construction of the content. The variety of characters covered allows for a considerable breadth of information on life for the rich and poor.' - Ancient Egypt Magazine _____________________ Spend 24 hours with the inhabitants of the most powerful kingdom in the ancient world. Ancient Egypt wasn't all pyramids, sphinxes and gold sarcophagi. For your average Egyptian, life was tough, and work was hard, conducted under the burning gaze of the sun god Ra. During the course of a day in the ancient city of Thebes (modern-day Luxor), Egypt's religious capital, we meet 24 Egyptians from all strata of society - from the king to the bread-maker, the priestess to the fisherman, the soldier to the midwife - and get to know what the real Egypt was like by spending an hour in their company. We encounter a different one of these characters every hour and in every chapter, and through their eyes see what an average day in ancient Egypt was really like.

Spend a year in the company of the ancient Egyptians, during the twenty-sixth and final year of the reign of Amenhotep II (c.1400 BC), which saw a royal transition bringing Thutmose IV to the throne of Upper and Lower Egypt. While builders from the secluded village of royal tomb workers rush to complete Amenhotep's tomb, and craftsmen labour to finish the numerous extravagant objects to accompany the god-king in his burial, most Egyptians go about their daily lives in ways unchanged for eons. Following the Egyptian calendar year, which was divided into three seasons (flooding, sowing and harvest), we will meet a farmer and his family, an embalmer, an artisan, a royal physician, a priest and even a royal wife as they live their lives in Thebes and Memphis during the eighteenth dynasty of the New Kingdom in this remarkable year in ancient Egyptian history.

Ancient Egypt: The Basics offers an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the history, archaeology and influence of this fascinating civilization. Coverage includes: A survey of Egyptian history from its earliest origins to the coming of Islam Life and death in ancient Egypt Key archaeological discoveries and important characters Egypt's impact and reception through to the modern day Lively and engaging, this is an indispensable resource for anyone beginning their studies of Egyptian history, culture and archaeology, and a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about the country's long and captivating past.

Ancient Egypt: The Basics offers an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the history, archaeology and influence of this fascinating civilization. Coverage includes:

A survey of Egyptian history from its earliest origins to the coming of Islam

Life and death in ancient Egypt

Key archaeological discoveries and important characters

Egypt’s impact and reception through to the modern day

Lively and engaging, this is an indispensable resource for anyone beginning their studies of Egyptian history, culture and archaeology, and a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about the country’s long and captivating past.

Table of Contents

1. Ancient Egypt: the loss and rediscovery of a civilization

2. Life and death in Ancient Egypt

3. Ancient Egypt: the earlier years

4. The age of empire and beyond

5. Some big discoveries

6. Influences and effects

7. Exploring Egypt today

Appendix: Sources for further exploration/

Ancient Egypt, with its spectacular temples and tombs, its history, gods, and legends, has enticed the human imagination for centuries. This fascination--and the irresistible drive to unearth the buried secrets of a lost civilization--have been the life work of archaeologist Donald P. Ryan. "Beneath the Sands of Egypt" is the gripping first-person account of a real-life "Indiana Jones" as he recalls a career spent delving into the remains of Egypt's past--including his headline-making rediscovery of a lost tomb in the Valley of the Kings containing the mummy of the famous female pharaoh Hatshepsut.

Infused with the irrepressible curiosity and the incomparable wonder of discovery that have fueled Ryan's lifelong journey, "Beneath the Sands of Egypt" is the extraordinary story of a man who has always embraced adventure whenever--and wherever--he finds it.

Egypt's ancient pyramids, temples, and tombs along the Nile, which have inspired artists and writers for centuries, have also inspired poets--and particularly in the nineteenth century when romanticism was at its height. Egyptologist Donald Ryan here collects a wide variety of English verse composed by British, Irish, and North American poets fired up by the magic, the splendor, or the desolation of the pharaonic ruins and their echoes of a distant history. Includes verse by: Robert Browning, Lord Byron, John Keats, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Herman Melville, John Ruskin, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Alfred Tennyson, Lady Wilde, and many more.