Home › Books › A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyp…
A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology
by
78/99
Critics' Rating Index
40/99
Readers' Rating Index
81/99
Scholars' Citation Index
94/99
Volume of Reviews
52/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
A thrilling history of the West's scramble for the riches of ancient Egypt by the foremost Egyptologist of our time. From the decipherment of hieroglyphics in 1822 to the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon a hundred years later, the uncovering of Egypt's ancient past took place in an atmosphere of grand adventure and international rivalry. In A World Beneath the Sands, acclaimed Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson chronicles the ruthless race between the British, French, Germans, and Americans to lay claim to its mysteries and treasures. He tells riveting stories of the men and women whose obsession with Egypt's ancient civilization helped to enrich and transform our understanding of the Nile Valley and its people, and left a lasting impression on Egypt, too. Travelers and treasure-hunters, ethnographers and archaeologists: whatever their motives, whatever their methods, a century of adventure and scholarship revealed a lost world, buried for centuries beneath the sands.
Reviews
"Refreshingly, Wilkinson dedicates a chapter to two women: Lucie Duff Gordon and Amelia Edwards ..."
"The story that strings these wonderful characters together is the steady professionalisation of Egyptology — the shift, as Wilkinson puts it, from 'scoundrels to scholars' ..."
"[A] dramatic, detailed and eccentric-packed story of the century between the decoding of the Rosetta Stone in 1822 and the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 ..."
"He would have loved this book."
"Late on in A World Beneath the Sands I realised what I should probably have studied was not Egyptology but Egyptologists."
"Perhaps Egyptology equips people to create illusions."
"This comprehensive study is highly recommended for anyone interested in the exploration and study of Egypt, both ancient and modern."
"The result is an essential portrait of how the rediscovery of '[Egypt's] ancient past paved the way for its modern rebirth.'"
"Toby Wilkinson's new history of the golden age of Egyptology is also very much a history of western willy-waving ..."
"Wilkinson's ambitious focus is the hundred years of Egyptology between Jean-Francois Champollion's groundbreaking deciphering of the Rosetta stone in 1822 and Howard Carter's sensational discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922 ..."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!