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The Pyramids and Sphinx
Beautifully photographed books on the Wonders of Man.
- GenresHistoryEgyptNonfiction
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
2 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Desmond Stewart
38 books9 followers1924-1981.
Desmond Stirling Stewart was a British writer and journalist who spoke Arabic fluently and worked for many years in Baghdad, Beirut, and Cairo. He wrote a number of books about Egyptian and Arabic culture and history as well as several novels.
His main novels are 'The Leopard in the Grass' (1953), 'The Unsuitable Englishman' (1955), trilogy 'The Sequence of Roles', 'The Round Mosaic'(1965), 'The Pyramid Inch' (1966), 'The Mamelukes' (1968).
Desmond Stirling Stewart was a British writer and journalist who spoke Arabic fluently and worked for many years in Baghdad, Beirut, and Cairo. He wrote a number of books about Egyptian and Arabic culture and history as well as several novels.
His main novels are 'The Leopard in the Grass' (1953), 'The Unsuitable Englishman' (1955), trilogy 'The Sequence of Roles', 'The Round Mosaic'(1965), 'The Pyramid Inch' (1966), 'The Mamelukes' (1968).
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 31, 2024
This is another real mixed bag. The illustrations are definitely worth it.
The text does one admirable thing, which is to continue the story of Egypt beyond the fall of the Ptolemaic era and into the 20th century. Steward envisions a historical Jesus, Joseph and Mary entering Roman Egypt and takes us from that imagined past through a very real story of how we go from a Roman Egypt that still had continuities with the Egypt of the Pyramids and Sphinx to the Coptic Christian repudiation of that heritage and then from there to the breaks with Roman/Greek Christianity over Christology and finally with the entrance of Muslim Arabs and their commingling with the Coptic Christians.
Again, it's worth the attempt to keep going from their from the Fatimids, to the Mamluks and Ottomans and Mohammad Ali's dynasty and all the way to the officers like Nasser who overthrew the monarchy and expelled the British. This last bit is actually well handled as the author talks about the refusal of the British and Americans to fund the Aswan Dam and how this led Nasser to turn to the Soviets.
While the attempt to roll through all of that history is admirable, it would have been even better if someone else had written this.
On the one hand this book is mercifully free of the constraints of chamber of commerce boosterism.
On the other hand the central themes of spirituality and religion are pretty grossly handled here. Desmond Stewart really hates Akenaten--and while that skepticism provides a good counter to much of the mythology that has developed around the Amarna period in the modern era--a central theme here is that Atenism didn't catch on because it was regressive when it came to ordinary folks having a shot at an afterlife--the number of pejoratives used to describe Akhenaten is ridiculous.
Stewart has a retrograde interpretation of Hathepsut as well. He dismisses her rule as representing a feminine instinct because she wasn't constantly campaigning to enforce imperial hegemony.
So, this text is problematic, but I think a real conversation starter in all of the periods covered because it bothers to cover so much more of the history than other books do.
The text does one admirable thing, which is to continue the story of Egypt beyond the fall of the Ptolemaic era and into the 20th century. Steward envisions a historical Jesus, Joseph and Mary entering Roman Egypt and takes us from that imagined past through a very real story of how we go from a Roman Egypt that still had continuities with the Egypt of the Pyramids and Sphinx to the Coptic Christian repudiation of that heritage and then from there to the breaks with Roman/Greek Christianity over Christology and finally with the entrance of Muslim Arabs and their commingling with the Coptic Christians.
Again, it's worth the attempt to keep going from their from the Fatimids, to the Mamluks and Ottomans and Mohammad Ali's dynasty and all the way to the officers like Nasser who overthrew the monarchy and expelled the British. This last bit is actually well handled as the author talks about the refusal of the British and Americans to fund the Aswan Dam and how this led Nasser to turn to the Soviets.
While the attempt to roll through all of that history is admirable, it would have been even better if someone else had written this.
On the one hand this book is mercifully free of the constraints of chamber of commerce boosterism.
On the other hand the central themes of spirituality and religion are pretty grossly handled here. Desmond Stewart really hates Akenaten--and while that skepticism provides a good counter to much of the mythology that has developed around the Amarna period in the modern era--a central theme here is that Atenism didn't catch on because it was regressive when it came to ordinary folks having a shot at an afterlife--the number of pejoratives used to describe Akhenaten is ridiculous.
Stewart has a retrograde interpretation of Hathepsut as well. He dismisses her rule as representing a feminine instinct because she wasn't constantly campaigning to enforce imperial hegemony.
So, this text is problematic, but I think a real conversation starter in all of the periods covered because it bothers to cover so much more of the history than other books do.
October 3, 2019
I'm keeping this book purely for the art. I was kinda meh about the writing until I got to the part where they started commenting on the illogic of Egyptian religious beliefs and how, apparently incredibly, it seemed to work for them. That's incredibly troubling in a history book. I'm not super surprised, but that wasn't the only problem, there was a lot of racist and judgmental commentary that was completely unnecessary.
August 8, 2022
Another volume of Newsweek's 'Wonders of Man' series, of which I'd just finished those on the Parthenon and the Colosseum. All work off an architectural monument to present a history of the culture which built it and to describe how it has been understood by succeeding generations. Of the three volumes, that on the Colosseum was the most entertaining, this and the one on the Parthenon being rather dry.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews