Exploring Ancient Egypt Through Captivating Books

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Being spellbound by the history of Ancient Egypt and Egyptian mythology means entering into a story and a time period from which it is practically impossible to escape. Thinking about its more than three thousand years of history is fascinating and can cause anyone to want to learn more.

Ancient Egypt amazes us for many reasons-the enormous knowledge they passed down, its fantastic art, for the magnificent constructions that they left us, the gigantic temples and the obvious pyramids, and their thoughts and beliefs on the afterlife. Above all, though, they gave us a world that continues to amaze us because of everything we don’t know, and that forces us to assume and theorize about things for which we will probably never obtain a definitive answer.

Unveiling Ancient Egypt: A Brief Journey Through Time

Why Are We So Fascinated?

My new book, EGYPTOMANIA, is all about why we are so fascinated with ancient Egypt. Kids want to see the mummies in the Egyptian sections of museums, not the Greek pots. New agers who think they are reincarnated were always ancient Egyptians in their previous lives, never Vikings or Maya. What is it about Egypt? Egyptomania has always been with us. Even the ancient Greeks were fascinated with their much older Mediterranean neighbors.

In the book, I describe half a dozen events that fanned the flames of Egyptomania. Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign started the ball rolling, but the Opening of the Suez Canal, an obelisk being transported to New York, and the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb have everyone wild for anything Egyptian. I try to show --- in vivid color --- all the goodies that were created after these events. After the discovery of King Tut, flappers danced to "Old King Tut was a Wise Old Nut," and fashionable ladies wore mechanical pencils in the shape of a mummy around their necks. Pull on the silver mummy’s head and the lead pops out his feet!

The great antiquity and the fact that it is so alien to western civilization make Ancient Egypt an endlessly fascinating topic. Greece and Rome somehow feel more familiar, whereas Ancient Egypt seems very different, with its animal-headed gods and its tombs. It is something about that combination of antiquity and mystery that is endlessly appealing.

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Ten Recommended Books on Ancient Egypt

When I was asked to name my 10 favorite books on ancient Egypt, I decided to go for fun reads rather than authoritative scholarship.

  1. THE SCARAB MURDER CASE: A Philo Vance Detective Story by S.S. Van Dine
  2. THE EYE OF OSIRIS by R. Austin Freeman: The first book to ever suggest x-raying a mummy (1911) leads Egyptologists at the British Museum to discover that their wrapped mummy is actually a modern murder victim. The description of what early x-raying was like is amazing.
  3. THE EGYPTIAN by Mika Waltari: A bestseller of the 1940s, this may be the best Egyptian novel ever written.
  4. THE LAST CAMEL DIED AT NOON: An Amelia Peabody Mystery by Elizabeth Peters: Perhaps the best of Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody series, this is an homage to H. Rider Haggard.
  5. THE TOMB OF TUTANKHAMEN by Howard Carter: It is a story well told that the world is always happy to hear again. The discovery of the boy-king’s tomb and treasures is one the world never tires of hearing.
  6. TEMPLES TOMBS AND HIEROGLYPHS: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz: This is the first popular book on Egyptology to become a bestseller. Mertz was a Ph. D. in Egyptology who knows how to tell a story. She later wrote a dozen other bestsellers under the name of Elizabeth Peters.
  7. DESCRIPTION DE L’EGYPTE by Taschen: The publisher Taschen reprinted all the wonderful archaeological engravings that Napoleon’s artists did during the Egyptian Campaign of 1798-1801. You can spend hours flipping through, looking at what the temples and tombs looked like 200 years ago.
  8. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AKHNATON by Arthur Weigall: Weigall may be the best of all the archaeological writers.

Other Notable Books

Here are some other highly recommended books that offer insights into different aspects of Ancient Egypt.

  • Salima Ikram’s work offers one of the most entertaining and rigorous introductions to the history of ancient culture of Ancient Egypt for young readers.
  • Ian Shaw’s History of Ancient Egypt is probably one of the most comprehensive and illuminating works on Egyptian civilization of ancient times. An extraordinary story of this ancient world that takes us from the first moments in the Stone Age, seven hundred thousand years ago, until its incorporation into the Roman Empire in 311 AD. A work full of beautiful illustrations, maps and photographs that, through a simple narrative style, reveal to us the political, social and cultural aspects of one of the most exciting civilizations in the history of humanity, the secrets of the pyramids, treasures of ancient Egypt, their beliefs in the afterlife or the domestic life of its citizens.
  • The Egyptians, by Isaac Asimov, describes the origins, splendor and subsequent decline of a people as fascinating and mysterious Egyptian myths as few have existed throughout history. Despite being a synthesis, belonging to his successful Asimov Universal History series , the author highlights the most significant moments in the History of Ancient Egypt , a civilization that lasted for millennia, from its prehistoric origins, the importance of the Nile River, the arrival of the Neolithic, archaic Egypt, the Pharaonic period, the Ptolemaic period, Roman hegemony and the subsequent implantation of Muslim culture. A fantastic book to introduce yourself to the history of Egypt, thanks to a wonderful narration that transports us through several thousand years, with the always entertaining and fun style of Isaac Asimov.
  • Gods And Myths Of Ancient Egypt By Robert A. Armor delves into the enormous amount of information that has come down to us in a clear and accessible way, either through the writings that the Egyptians themselves wrote or the later texts of the Greeks and Romans. It is impossible to understand those human beings who inhabited Ancient Egypt without knowing and understanding how they saw life and, above all, how they treated death. The lands of the Nile contain many treasures and one of the most exciting is its mythology and beliefs in the afterlife.
  • The Tomb of Tutankhamen by Howard Carter brings us up to date on what we know and don’t know about the young king and his discovery. A book that passionately reviews the history of the find. In November 1922, more than a century after the location of the first tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and after years of study, planning and scrutiny of the place, Howard Carter starred in what to this day remains the arguably most important archaeological find of all time: the tomb of Tutankhamen. This was the only tomb that had been found intact. Full of treasures, clothes, vessels, mummies, hieroglyphic codes and religious symbols, it allowed us to reconstruct life in ancient Egypt and shed light on the research that Egyptologists had been carrying out for decades.
  • Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization by Barry Kemp answers the question of why did the ancient Egyptian state, society and civilization successfully survive for three thousand years with an original vision of the life, institutions, culture and beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, and reveals the surprising reality of a “benignly authoritarian” regime.

Children's Books on Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt holds a fascination for children. Pyramids and hieroglyphs spark the imagination-it’s how I first came to love Egypt. Here are some fiction wonderful books that can feed his hunger for stories about life in ancient Egypt:

  • “Muti’s Necklace: The Oldest Story in the World” by Louise Hawes is based on a folktale found on the Westcar Papyrus. It tells the story of a young palace servant who disobeys her masters to retrieve the necklace given to her by her father.
  • “Croco’nile” by Roy Gerrard describes the adventures of Hamut and Nekatu, a talented brother and sister whose skills bring them fame and danger.
  • “The Egyptian Polar Bear” by JoAnn Adinolfi was inspired by scholarly tales of a burial chamber for a polar bear. A strong current carries a polar bear to ancient Egypt, where he comes to live with the boy pharaoh.
  • “I Am the Mummy Heb-nefert” by Eve Bunting and David Christiana features a mummy reflecting on her life. In life, she was the wife of the pharaoh’s brother, and her story offers a look into daily life in ancient Egypt.
  • “Pharaoh’s Daughter: A Novel of Ancient Egypt” by Julius Lester depicts Moses as a teenager in Egypt. His interactions with his three mother figures show how he was caught between Hebrew and Egyptian beliefs and ways of life.
  • “Mara, Daughter of the Nile” by Eloise Jarvis McGraw involves an Egyptian slave girl (main character) who undertakes a spy mission during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut.
  • “The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt” by G. A. Henty is set in 1250 BCE. It follows two boys: Amuba, a captured prince and Chebron, the son of an Egyptian high priest. Their adventure begins when Chebron accidentally kills a sacred cat.

Top Ten Picks for Studying Ancient Egypt

Here are top ten picks for studying Ancient Egypt. These are the ten living books that are scheduled into the lesson plan guide called Genesis through Deuteronomy and Ancient Egypt. We like to pair ancient history with Bible history.

  1. Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors by Lorene Lambert (Grades 1-12): This is my favorite family read-aloud for this time period. It does a masterful job of helping you learn about the Ancient Egyptian history and culture, but it doesn’t ignore the rest of the world. It includes chapters on Ancient Egypt’s “neighbors,” too, and tucks into each one a fascinating story about that part of the world. It’s a great book for the whole family.
  2. The Great Pyramid by Elizabeth Mann or Pyramid by David Macaulay (Grades 1-12): These two books will help your family dig deeper into the topic of the pyramids. Both books are very similar: The Great Pyramid by Elizabeth Mann and Pyramid by David Macaulay. Choose one or the other; I wouldn’t do both. The Great Pyramid is in color with some photographs; Pyramid is in black and white with exquisitely detailed drawings. Both tell the story of all that went into building a pyramid: why it was built, how the land was chosen, how it was built, what was put inside. Pyramid goes into more detail about the skills and equipment and engineering of the construction.
  3. Pharaoh’s Boat by David Weitzman (Grades 1-12): Most people are familiar with the great pyramids as the final resting place of the pharaohs, but not everyone knows about the magnificent boats that Cheops commissioned to be built and buried near his pyramid. This book tells the story, skillfully interweaving the narrative between the original ship-builders and the modern-day archeologist who discovered and uncovered them.
  4. Boy of the Pyramids by Ruth Fosdick Jones (Grades 1-3): This is my absolute favorite book for first through third graders studying Ancient Egypt. This is a gentle mystery, set in Ancient Egypt, about a ten-year-old boy named Kaffe who has many adventures with his friend Sari, a slave-girl. They experience firsthand the harvest feast, the fight of the bulls, the flooding of the Nile, and the mystery of the pyramid’s missing jewels. I appreciate how this historical fiction helps younger students get a good feel for life in Ancient Egypt, but it doesn’t depend on a fear factor or sensationalize the mummies and gods and such.
  5. The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (Grades 4-9): This is another mystery set in Ancient Egypt, but it’s more for fourth through ninth graders. The events in the story are a little more intense, not as gentle as Boy of the Pyramids. The main character, a young man named Ranofer, endures some hard situations and difficult relationships, especially with his half brother, Gebu. In fact, Ranofer discovers a golden goblet that his half brother stole from one of the great tombs. If he can prove that Gebu committed this shameful crime, Ranofer will also be able to win his own freedom.
  6. The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt by Elizabeth Payne (Grades 4-9): This book delves more into the individual pharaohs and their lives and reigns. Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors talks about some of the pharaohs, but this book goes more systematically through the main ones in chronological order. However, it is not a dry textbook at all. This is one of the Landmark Books, a series that I’ve mentioned in some of the other favorite book posts. Landmark Books do a fabulous job of telling a living narrative that makes historical people come to life in the reader’s mind.
  7. The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt by G.A. Henty (Grades 7-9): The Cat of Bubastes weaves the story of Amuba, a young prince in a neighboring country, who is captured and taken to Ancient Egypt. Through his time as a slave there, the reader learns much about the culture and climate and politics. When a sacred cat is accidentally killed, Amuba is caught up in a chain of adventures.
  8. Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay (Grades 7-12): Motel of the Mysteries is a humorous book that will encourage your older students to think about how much we actually know about an ancient civilization and how much may be conjecture. In the book some future archaeologists uncover the ruins of a motel and seek to grasp our present culture based on what they find there.
  9. Uarda by Georg Ebers (Grades 10-12): It’s an old gem called Uarda by Georg Ebers. Two things I want to mention about Uarda: first, it contains some good philosophical discussions between characters, which will encourage your older student to think about those deeper ideas and spawn some good discussions; second, it presents a picture of the various Egyptian gods and each one’s priests and temples in a way that I hadn’t thought about before.
  10. Unwrapping the Pharaohs by John Ashton and David Down (Grades 10-12): This book is Unwrapping the Pharaohs by John Ashton and David Down. It includes extension photographs, good maps, and a timeline that seeks to align the pharaohs with Bible events. The subtitle is “How Egyptian Archaeology Confirms the Biblical Timeline.” It’s a fascinating book for those older students who already have the foundation of living books on the time period and are ready for a deeper dive.

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