Ancient Egypt

I will be taking a long-awaited immersive trip to Egypt later this year. In order to properly prepare for this visit I enrolled in a 10 week online course (Ancient Egypt: An Introduction) through Oxford University. This book is required reading for the course. My practice is to read books in their entirety prior to the beginning of a course. Thus far I am 3 chapters in and I have found this book to be highly instructive. I'm learning new things and I'm eager to read more. This is not a novel, it's a textbook packed with details, which appear to be thoroughly researched. It also contains some very helpful maps and interesting photos.

I have followed this author from childhood and purchased this book as a way to teach my own children the ways of the Egyptian past. Salina Ikram does an amazing job of focusing on historical facts coupled with mythology and ancient Egyptian belief systems to deliver an amazing overview which is easy to read, fun, and most importantly, educational!

Very easy to read and understand without dumbing down the subject. Dr. Ikram's knowledge and love of her subject make the book informative and entertaining. The illustrations and photos, as well as the boxed texts, add extra insight into the material.

Unlike a lot of other history textbooks this one didn't put me to sleep! Lots of great images and information on ancient Egypt. I would recommend it if you are looking for a book on this subject.

Fascinating book.

I had to read this book for my Ancient Egypt course in college and I really liked it! It was easy to read while still going into detail about Ancient Egypt. I highly recommend this book and would supplement it with "The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries" by Mark Lehner with goes more into the pyramids aspect in areas which this book was lacking

I'm not a student, just a history buff who loves documentaries. I bought this book to get a more in depth knowledge on ancient Egypt and was not disappointed.

Dr. Okra's book is a lovely introduction for the educated layperson.

I was doing an online short course about ancient Egypt from Oxford department of continuing education as I am fascinated by the subject for years. This is the recommended coursebook so I bought it. It is a very nice textbook with an overview of different aspects of ancient Egyptian. If you are looking for something which go through the Egyptian history chronologically by major events, this is not for you. It focuses on geography, religion and funerary traditions. I would recommend people to have a basic understanding of the timeline before going into this one. It might be a bit confusing and too academic to beginners. However, if you just want to know more about ancient Egyptians and don't care about the timeline, then it's fine. To me, it is the right book to guide me through the course. I already know the major events happened from Old Kingdom to New Kingdom before reading it. What I want is to delve deeper into the details and the worldview of ancient Egyptians and the reasons behind. As I read a lot of academic articles, the formal tone is fine for me and not dull and boring at all. It includes right amount of pictures and sketches that give you a better understanding. In general, this is a nice academic source book which I would recommend to adults with an intermediate level of knowledge on the topic.

One of the best, if not the best, entry level overview on Ancient Egypt, with many tables, diagrams, etc., written by more of the most well-regarded living historians, the esteemed Salima Ikram, who has extensive record of peer‐reviewed publications and her work employs rigorous methodologies, leaving very little room for criticism.

A great book for those who are studying Egyptolgy or those who are interested in it. I bought it for my wife as a present after searching long for a good Egyptology-Textbook. She is in love with the book and finds it much better explaning than bookets provided by her professors for Egyptology.

Great price. Brand new.

Salima Ikram writes in plain language with none of the usual, complicated, academic verbosity. This book is an excellent introduction to a huge subject, and is highly recommend.