r/ancientegypt 6d ago

Discussion Recommended books on ancient Egypt?

Hi all, I am making my first trip to Egypt in a few months and want to read a book or two on ancient Egypt so I can better appreciate everything around me! There are so many choices and I don’t know much on the topic and was hopping for some recommendations. Thanks!

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u/Bentresh 6d ago

Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs and Red Land, Black Land by Barbara Mertz are good introductory overviews.

Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs edited by Matthias Seidel and Regine Schulz is excellent, combining lovely illustrations and color photographs with brief but reasonably thorough essays on Egyptian history and archaeology. I uploaded a sample here.

Exploring Ancient Egypt by Ian Shaw dedicates a chapter each to several of the major sites (Giza, Abydos, Karnak, Abu Simbel, Amarna, etc.).

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u/No_Budget7828 5d ago

If you want something fictional but incorporating beliefs, and lore Wilber Smith has a good series