A fascinating portrait of an ancient nation mired in superstition, magic, and mythology as it emerges into the modern era.

    Also includes two of his other novels: Miramar, a tale of intersecting lives that provides us with a portrait of life in Egypt in the late 1960's; and The Thief and the Dogs, which depicts the fate of a Marxist thief, who has been released from prison and plans revenge.

    This comprehensive survey of Egyptian society and history transforms our understanding of this remarkable civilisation.

    Combining an analysis of Cairo's urban growth from the Islamic conquest up to the reign of Muhammad 'Ali, an overview of its main architectural styles, a descriptive catalog of the major monuments, and a discussion of domestic architecture, this concise and comprehensive study will appeal to specialists as well as beginning students and interested lay readers.

    A reconstructed herbal of 95 species of plants and trees known to be used before, during and after the pharaonic period in Egypt. The author, a skilled Egyptologist, draws on classical and other texts, and explains the special properties of each plant, quoting authentic recipes for cosmetics and remedies. This updated edition includes an extended section on perfume, which draws on the latest research into the ingredients and uses of Egyptian scents.

    Full-page illustrations of Cleopatra, Ramses II, arts and crafts, funerary practices, warfare, architectural monuments, and more are featured, along with captions. Educational entertainment for colorists of all ages; inexpensive source of royalty-free graphics for commercial artists.

    Describes the origins and purpose of mummification, clears up misconceptions about mummies, and looks at recent scientific studies.

    

    the deserts of Egypt saw the birth of Christian monasticism under the tutelage of the desert fathers. Since then the movement has spread around the world. This standard work traces the historical development of all the currently inhabited Coptic monasteries, drawing on a wide variety of sources, including accounts by early Western travelers.

    As El-Gabalawy notes in his critical introduction, the novella is "based on the pattern of Boccaccio's Decameron, which begins with the flight of ten people from plague-stricken Florence" . Elkhadem's protagonists, seven men and three women, happen to meet in a visa office as they attempt to flee from the endemic oppression and brutality that plagues Egypt under Nasser's tyrannical regime. The range of characters—an engineering student, a teacher of French, a young bride, a businessman, a journalist, an actress, a naive young man, an academic, a housewife, and a commander of a military prison—creates a cross section of Egyptian society. These men and women chat about themselves as they wait to receive their exit visas, just as Boccaccio's characters recount tales to pass time. However, the autobiographical stories presented in The Plague, unlike the tales of the Decameron or the recollections of Elkhadem's protagonists in From Travels of the Egyptian Odysseus and Ulysses's Hallucinations or the Like, are told before, not after, the characters leave their homeland. Thus, hope, anxiety, and fear pervade and infect the speeches and thoughts of Elkhadem's most recent protagonists as they anticipate the prospects of self-imposed exile.