"The Lost Tombs of Thebes - Life in Paradise"
By Zahi Hawass
Photographs by Sandro Vannini
Thames & Hudson, 288 pp. $80.
LAS CRUCES— The interest in Ancient Egypt is understandable since it was the longest lasting civilization of more than 3,000 years. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, has written a clear and scholarly narrative on the tombs of the officials or nobles of the Pharaohs in the New Kingdom period from 1630 B.C. to 1069 B.C. These tombs were near Ancient Egypt's administrative center of Thebes, which was about the same size of Las Cruces today. The royal tombs of the Pharaohs were in the Valley of the Kings.
The acclaimed Italian photographer, Sandro Vannini, provides the magnificent large format images in this beautiful book. If you were able to travel in Egypt, you could never have a better view of the art in these private tombs. It is really breathtaking. Some of the mural paintings are as fresh and vivid as if created yesterday.
The book focuses on 80 of the 400 tombs of the courtiers of the "Golden Age" of Egypt. The colorful art reveals that active lives and accomplishments of Egyptians who were treasury administrators, high priests, granary supervisors, tutors, nurses, royal architects and other officials.
Hawass succinctly summarizes the Egyptian concepts of death and their view of the afterlife. He also shows why so much wealth was spent in the construction and decoration of the tombs and explains the details of the burial and mummification.
2 comments:
I have an excellent book on the Tombs of the Nobles - if only I could find it - but I'd still like this the Lost Tombs of Thebes not least becase of Sandro Vannini whose work I rate as consistently excellent.
But the price for this book is too high. Maybe when a paperback edition is published I will get that version.
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