More than thirty centuries ago—long before Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt—a boy of seventeen called Tutankhamen became Pharaoh of Egypt. He did not live very long, nor was he very important in the long history of this ancient civilization.

But Tutankhamen's reign ended a peak period in the history of Egypt, a time when Thebes was the richest city in the world and the center of trade routes that stretched from Mesopotamia and Syria to Nubia; from Crete to the land of Punt. Great, many-columned temples soared into the blue sky, and in the temple workshops, hundreds of craftsmen worked unceasingly to turn the wealth of Egypt into magnificent garments, splendid houses and furniture, jeweled ornaments and weapons for the gods and for Pharaoh, who was a god.

And that is why now, more than three thousand years later, Leonard Cottrell, a well-known writer and student of the civilization of ancient Egypt, can recreate in this book so vivid and accurate a picture of everyday life as it must have seemed to a young scribe at the boy-king's court. For in 1922 an English archaeologist named Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamen's tomb, and in it were all the possessions Tutankhamen would need in the afterlife—his royal clothing, his weapons and ornaments, his throne, couches and chairs, and even his gaming board. Like the text, Richard M. Powers' handsome illustrations are based on the wall paintings and objects found in Tutankhamen's tomb.

From the dust jacket