Pyramids - Hardcover

Filer, Joyce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195305213 ISBN 13: 9780195305210

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2006

Synopsis

Pyramids tells the story of these Egyptian monuments from their earliest beginnings, following their development from the first step pyramid to the Great Pyramid of Giza. Unlike most books on the subject, the volume describes not only the pyramids themselves but also the complexes of temples and walls that surrounded them. It also tells the stories of the kings and builders who created them. Filer follows the story of the pyramids through a study of eight individual sites, each with something different to tell us about the construction of the pyramid complexes, the architects who designed them, the workers who built them, the kings who were buried in them, and the robbers who plundered them.

About this title

About the Author

Joyce Filer is a qualified teacher who also worked in the British Museum Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan for many years. She is the author of The Mystery of the Egyptian Mummy.

Reviews

Grade 3-8–Plentiful color photographs and clean design characterize this introduction to major pyramids and pyramid-building kings of Egypt. Brief chapters explain what a pyramid is and how Egyptians lived before the Old Kingdom; more detailed chapters examine, in chronological order, Djoser and the Step Pyramid, the major pyramids of the 4th Dynasty, and the almost entirely collapsed pyramid of Ahmose of the 18th Dynasty. Filer also takes note of the associated temple complexes. She humanizes the pharaohs by mentioning parents, children, and wives, some of whose burial places have been found within the complexes. Where appropriate, she also names architects, notably Imhotep, who designed the Step Pyramid and came to be worshiped in Egypt in later centuries, and discusses the men who did the dirty work and what can be learned of them from their remains. In addition to the pyramids, photographs depict statues of the kings, family members, tomb paintings, hieroglyphs, and surrounding buildings. Several diagrams show the internal layouts of pyramids, theories about how the pyramids were built, and Djoser's enormous complex at Saqqara. Final chapters deal with pyramids in other cultures and those by nonroyals in Egypt. A few references are too casual. It is perfectly fine, for example, to say that the Great Pyramid was built around 2600 B.C., but not when the same page states that Khufu, its builder, became king about 2589 B.C. Even so, this is a solid, well-organized introduction.–Coop Renner, Hillside Elementary, El Paso, TX
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195305213
• ISBN 13: 9780195305210
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 48