Pyramids at their best (Giza: the Truth - Ian Lawton, Chris Ogilvie - Herald)

Member Name: dmullier

Product:	Giza: the Truth - Ian Lawton, Chris Ogilvie - Herald
Date:	08/08/00 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well-written, scholarly and interesting

Disadvantages: you have to buy it, I suppose because I'm hanging onto my copy

This book is seriously good. I agree completely with the blurb. If you are going to read one book on the subject of the Pyramids then make sure it is this one. I've read quite a few and have been to Egypt, because I'm quite into the Pyramids. I've read the unorthodox stuff of Hancock and Beauval and I've read the encyclopaedic “The Complete Pyramids” by Egyptologist Mark Lehner. Lehner is very dry and not for the uninitiated. Hancock and Beauval are not very scientific in their approach. Herald and Lawton are very scholarly in their approach; they give both sides of the argument and sensibly come down on the orthodox side, but do lay the boot in when the orthodox boys tend to ignore tricky questions. But don’t that let that put the historical thrill-seeker off. This book is deeply interesting, it weaves through Victorian accounts from the people who opened the pyramids (and left their scars on them), such as Vyse and Petrie, and ponders on those tricky questions that some people wish weren’t there, such as how the Egyptians manages to get 100 tonne plus block several hundred feet into the air, to form the inner structure of the Great Pyramid and why the bugger they bothered when it would have been much easier (and less likely to attract the attention of grave robbers) if they’d bunged the bodies in a hole in the ground.

I don’t think that the authors are academics, but they have certainly gone through a fairly rigorous academic process in their writings (and I speak as an unimportant academic). They don’t seem to be thinking where the next sequel is coming from and don’t have a drum to beat.

My only minor criticism is the section on the back-biting and politics in the unorthodox camp. Personally I’m interested in the pyramids and couldn’t give a stuff about petty-minded bickerings, but I suppose some might. If they are right Messrs Hancock and Beauval will issue a fatwa (sp
) against me forthwith (if your hard enough Bobby boy).

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