The Secrets of the Sphinx Reviews

This authoritative publication remains the definitive source for the findings of the various archaeological excavations undertaken in Egypt. Published under the auspices of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, its contributors include some of the most well-known Egyptologists in the world, covering a broad range of archaeological disciplines and spectrums. Volume 84 includes reports from Egyptian, Spanish, Polish, British, German, Swiss, French, American, Belgian, and Japanese archaeological missions working in Egypt. Included in this volume are reports on a video exploration of the Queen’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid at Giza; an examination of an ostracon with notations about bread in Demotic script; excavations at North Saqqara, Siwa Oasis, Abydos, the Temple of Thutmosis III at Luxor, Elephantine, Syene and Queen Tausert’s temple in Western Thebes; the recording of rock inscriptions in Wadi Nag el-Birka on an important ancient road leading from Thebes; and documentation and fieldwork at a late Roman fort at Nag al-Hagar, near Kom Ombo.

As both the burial place of the first pharaohs and a cult center for the god Osiris, Abydos was of immense importance to the ancient Egyptians for thousands of years and continues to yield spectacular discoveries. However, no full analysis of the site has been written in the last thirty years. Here David O’Connor provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive account of the site’s extraordinary history, as well as telling the story of his own excavations there. O’Connor himself has made some of the most remarkable finds of recent years, including a royal burial consisting of a fleet of fourteen boats, buried far out in the desert. This beautifully illustrated and authoritative book fills a significant gap in the literature on ancient Egypt and will be of interest both to students and to anyone who ever wondered about the origins of one of the greatest civilizations in world history.