This volume is dedicated to Egypt and follows a historical narrative that, adhering to a rigorous chronology and keeping abreast of the most recent archeological investigations, sheds light onto the principal events, cultural and social processes, and religious beliefs that influenced and shaped the development and flowering of a civilization that lasted for thousands of years.
Starting from the first Neolithic cultures that settled along the shores of the Nile, this book tackles the era that saw the founding of the Pre-Dynastic Egyptian state. With the unification of the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt, the ancient pharaohs started to celebrate and immortalize their lives and achievements with the construction of stone monuments. The most impressive example of these is perhaps the pyramid tombs of the Ancient Kingdom, whose architectural evolution can be followed from the first step pyramid of Djoser, to the stupendous pyramids of Giza, and then to the necropolises of Abusir and Saqqara.

In the Ancient Kingdom, next to the representations of the sovereign, one can follow the development of sculpture and also of private burials, both areas that found new expressive forms during the First Intermediate Period or the Middle Kingdom.

Ample space is reserved for the figures of the pharaohs of the New Kingdom who with their military campaigns made Egypt one of the most powerful empires of the Near East. Thanks to a superb collection of photographs the reader is able to better admire the prodigious output of Egyptian art in all its splendor.

This book also examines the last centuries of the age of the pharaohs, up to the period of Greek and then Roman control of Egypt. It explores the era in which the pharaohs' culture came into contact and, in some cases, merged with the Hellenistic and Roman cultures. - from Amzon