Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs (Hardcover)

Created by a team of world-renowned art historians under the guidance of Zahi Hawass, director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, the book provides the entire sweep of ancient Egyptian history, focusing on the lifestyles and practices of the great pharaohs. Six chapters chronicle 3,000 years of history, from the predynastic days to Tut and the golden age, circa 1355 B.C., and on to Greek domination in the Ptolemaic period. Exquisite photography by Italian master Sandro Vannini spotlights all the artifacts on display at the exhibition. Vannini's innovative technique makes the photographs jump off the page, and the book's design takes its lead from the exhibition, grouping objects representing family life, religious practices, funerary rituals, and the gold of Egypt's great kings and queens.Here is a kohl pot - an eye makeup container - owned by Queen Tiye around 1400 B.C. Here is a carved sketch of a princess eating duck, and a sarcophagus made for a prince's cat. In each of these pieces we get a glimpse of the life of ancient Egyptian royalty - exotic and fascinating, yet so human. Gold gleams from these pages: A leopard-mask of gilded wood, worn by priests during funeral rituals. The bracelet of Queen Ahhotep, woven with beads of gold and semiprecious stones. A brilliant pendant on which tiny goddesses hail a winged scarab. The all-gold funerary mask of Psusennes I, finest of four discovered in the pharaoh's 3,000-year-old tomb in Tanis. And the golden finger and toe covers from Tutankhamun himself, to protect his extremities in the afterlife.