The force that forged an empire.

The furious thunder of thousands of hooves, the clatter and sheen of bronze armor sparkling in the desert sun, the crunch of wooden wheels racing across a rock-strewn battlefield-and leading this terrifying chariot charge, the gallant Pharaoh, the ribbons of his blue war crown streaming behind him as he launches yet another arrow into the panicking mass of his soon-to-be-routed enemies.

While scenes like the one depicted above did occur in ancient Egypt, they represent only one small aspect of the vast, complex, and sophisticated military machine that secured, defended, and expanded the borders of the empire during the late Eighteenth Dynasty.

In Tutankhamun's Armies, you'll discover the harsh reality behind the imperial splendor of the New Kingdom and gain a new appreciation for the formidable Egyptian army-from pharaoh to foot soldier. You'll follow "the heretic king" Akhenaten, his son Tutankhamun, and their three Amana-Period successors as they employ double-edge diplomacy and military might to defeat competing powers, quell internal insurrections, and keep reluctant subject states in line. This vivid and absorbing chronicle will forever change the way you think about the glories and riches of ancient Egypt.

Deserts, the Red Land, bracket the narrow strip of alluvial Black Land that borders the Nile. Networks of desert roads ascended to the high desert from the Nile Valley, providing access to the mineral wealth and Red Sea ports of the Eastern Desert, the oasis depressions and trade networks of the Western Desert. A historical perspective from the Predynastic through the Roman Periods highlights how developments in the Nile Valley altered the Egyptian administration and exploitation of the deserts. For the ancient Egyptians, the deserts were a living landscape, and at numerous points along the desert roads, the ancient Egyptians employed rock art and rock inscriptions to create and mark places. Such sites provide considerable evidence for the origin of writing in northeast Africa, the religious significance of the desert and expressions of personal piety, and the development of the early alphabet.

Illustrated in colour and b&w with 248 illustrations. The second monograph devoted to the work of the Theban Desert Road Survey presents the major rock inscriptions of the northwestern Theban Desert and the western hinterlands of Qamula. The material includes six larger sites and several smaller collections and individual inscriptions and images, sites discovered by the Theban Desert Road Survey over the course of approximately twelve field seasons. The major groupings of inscriptions, from south to north, are the rock shrine of Pahu and the inscriptions of Gebel Akhenaton, sites in the vicinity of the Wadi Himdaniya; a small but interesting collection of inscriptions near the Wadi Arqub Baghla, with two smaller, outlying sites; inscriptions of the Wadi Magar to the north, including the site of the great Predynastic tableau with its plethora of crocodiles, the associated vignette of Elephant-on-the-Gebel, along with the nearby Gebel Sutekh site, and smaller concentrations beyond; and finally the inscriptions of the area of the Matna el-Barqa. Highlights of the epigraphic material include new prayers to Amun and Hathor-one a genuine New Kingdom de profundis recording an appeal to Amun during a storm on the Nile-several important Predynastic and Protodynastic tableaux, and the only rock art depictions of Akhenaton in a true Amarna style.