Literature on Egypt

Here some books on Egypt: fiction and history. - For literature on the Mummy-films just go in the tent "The Mummy", for "Medjai" go into the tent "Medjai Infos", and for "desert/Bedouins" go into the tent "Desert". The novels from Oden Scott, Laura Haney and Nick Drake can be found under "Medjai Literature" in the "Medjai Infos"-tent!

Geagley, Brad: "Year of the Hyenas". 2005.
A detective story set in Old Egypt, at the time of Ramses III. The hero is Semerchet who has to solve the case of a murder on the priestess, but what he finds is a conspiracy against the pharaoh. Semerchet's friend is the Medjai Qar, and Geagley tells us a lot on the Medja (= Medjai). The novel is very exciting. Geagley is an expert on Old Egypt.

Kolpaktchy, Gregoire: "Livre des morts des anciens Égyptiens" Paris 1954. (in French)
The texts of the Old Egyptian "Books of the Dead".

Sands, Emily: "Egyptology: Search for the Tomb of Osiris " (Hard Cover, Ars Edition)
Nice book, very useful for children and Egypt-lovers. You will find a lot of playing things inside, you can learn to read the hieroglyphs or play senet. - The story is the oone of an English lady (Emily Sands) who travels with an expedition in 1926 to Egypt, from Cairo to Awan, to find the tomb of Osiris. Mystery!

Reeves, Nicholas/Wilkinson, Richard H.: "The Complete Valley of the Kings. Tombs and Treasures of Egypt's Greatest Pharaohs." London 1997 (reprint).
A wonderful, detailed compendium on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings with a look of pictures! There are four chapters: 1) Preparations for the Afterlife, 2) Agents of Discovery, 3) Tombs of the Kings, 4) Decline of a Royal Necropolis.

Tyldesley, Joyce: "Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh". 1998.
Who wants to go deeper in the history of the pharaohs, is right here: Joyce Tyldesley examines to role of the queen Hatschepsut who dresses in man's clothes and wears a pharao's beard just to be legitimised. Tyldesly tries to retrace the motives of the queen. Very interesting, but not quite easy to read.

El Mahdy, Christine: "The Pyramid Builder: Cheops, the Pharaoh Behind the Great Pyramid". 2003.
The building of the famous pyramid of Cheops is reconstructed. El Mahdy explains who Cheops really was and how the royal court influenced him. She gets some new findings.

Gegde, Pauline: "House of Illusions". 1996.
Thu once was educated to be a concubine of the pharaoh, but was innocently implicated into a conspiracy and banished. She handed a joung officer a small box with sealed papyri scrolls, which he has to give to the pharaoh. The general Pais is alarmed by this and tries to get rid off Thu. - Okay, this was very short, the novel is very elaborated and exciting and portrays Old Egypt very good.

Jacq, Christian: "Ramses" (1995 and later) - alltogether 5 books.
The titles of the five single books are: 1) Son of the Light, 2) The Temple of a Million Years, 3) The Battle of Kadesh, 4) The Lady of Abu Simbel, 5) Under the Western Acacia.
An amazing novel series! Main figure, of course, is Ramses, the important and successful pharaoh who conserved devotedly the traditions of Old Egypt. Other important acting figures and historical persons are his wife, Nefertiti, his parents Sethos I and Tuja, a lot of friends, because friendship is very important for Ramses. Therefore it seems a big betrayel of confidence to him, when his friend Moses asks stubbornly to let his people (Hebrews) go, particularly because they were never captives. Jacq contrasts Moses' stubborness concerning his believing in one god with the Old Egyptian religion, associated with wisdom and openness - so here we have another approach of Moses' famous move-out from Egypt. You will get a deep insight of the old times and you will be affected because it has been getting worse.

Jacq, Christian: "For the Love of Philae". 2003.
This book Buch tells on the last efforts of the priests and priestress on the temple island of Philae for the survival of the Old Egyptian religion. Exciting, but very sad, too.

Jacq, Christian: "The Conspiracy of Evil". 2006.
Jacq's new Egypt series: Osiris! The other titles are: 1) "The Tree of Life", 3) "The Way of Fire", 4) "The Great Secret"
The main figure is the scribe apprentice Iker. - In this second book the holy acacia of Abydos is threatened with extinction. Therefore the fair-minded pharaoh Sesostris is doing all, to strenghten the power of this tree, because when the tree will die, Egypt will die, too. Actually the greening of one branch of the tree succeeds. But there is the evil power of Seth who threatens Egypt. The pharaoh adopts young Iker who gets special charges. The royal court is jealous because Iker has risen too fast too high. Then there is the official Medes at the court who serves the evil side and the socalled "prophet" who tries to crush out Egypt and to raise his own world supremacy. - It is not too difficult to read, and Jacq is a real lover of Old Egypt culture. This time he tries to bring near the cult of Abydos.

Rice, Anne: "The Mummy or Ramses the Damned". 1991.
A kind of horror novel. Ramses II is awaking as mummy when bringing to England. He tries to protect the daughter of an archaeologist who is threatened with death. The real horror begins when Ramses former lover Cleopatra (the famous one!) awakes too and murderes non-stop...