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A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology
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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
"This is a riveting, sometimes appalling story."
"The drama plays out against palm trees, pyramids and Nile boats, with top billing for white European men."
"The people engaged in the discoveries are a compelling study ..."
"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 lively survey by an eminence in the field."
"This comprehensive study is highly recommended for anyone interested in the exploration and study of Egypt, both ancient and modern."
"Wilkinson marshals a wealth of detail into a cohesive and entertaining narrative."
"Late on in A World Beneath the Sands I realised what I should probably have studied was not Egyptology but Egyptologists."
"A World Beneath the Sands tells a gripping story by means of all the wayward eccentrics and heroic archaeologists who devoted their lives to uncovering the world's most ancient and dazzling monuments from beneath unimaginable depths of windblown sand ..."
"as Toby Wilkinson shows, the discovery of lost monuments, grave goods and mummified corpses also stimulated the emergence of their true inheritors, the modern Egyptian nation."
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