Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt Paperback – 1 March 2009

This book is awesome. It give a wonderful picture of life, in all its aspects, in ancient Egypt. It’s not dry dull reading either!!The author, Barbara Mertz , also wrote a fictional series under the name Elisabeth Peters. It involved a couple who lived in the late 19th and early 20th century and were archeologists, but also solved mysteries and had a wonderful love story. This non-fiction book was a perfect way to flesh out the way life was during the times of the pharaohs and what Amelia and Emerson strived to inform the world about.

The contents are quite interesting, and the approach is so accessible. It is fun to read, almost as stories more than just history content.

I love this book! I also have Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs and together they are a wonderful introduction to AE. Some of the information is outdated of course but it is the prose that makes this book enjoyable. Barbara Mertz loves Egypt and it shines through in this book.

I was surprised at how enjoyable this book was. I had purchased another book on daily life in Egypt and it was much more scholarly if you take my meaning, however while just as informative Barbara Mertz writes with a sense of humour and makes the people of this ancient civilisation seem so much more human. In the book I purchased there are some rather grainy black and white photos but there are also beautiful colour plates and some simple sketches to give you an idea of exactly what the author is describing. Anyway for me the words are more important and the pages just skipped by. Highly enjoyable.

History that is interesting! I hadn't read this for decades. I scored the e-book and dove back in. The actual (we think) way people lived their day to day life is fascinating. And Mertz is a great writer with a great sense of humor.