Hawass, Zahi, Mountains of the Pharaohs: The untold story of the Pyramid Builders, The American University in Cairo Press (2006) Zahi Hawass, a larger-than-life character who stands at the helm of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), has authored and co-authored several hefty publications on various aspects of ancient Egypt. Mountains of the Pharaohs is different -- not only because it is a conventionally sized book, a mere 24 x 16cms and only half a kilogramme in weight -- but also because it is written in narrative form and geared to the general public. Hawass has used a literary device to grasp the attention of an unprofessional audience. He has begun each chapter with an engaging imaginary scene written in italics. Chapter 1, called "The Reign of Sneferu" -- one of the most powerful rulers of ancient Egypt and founder of the great Fourth Dynasty in 2613 BC -- is introduced with these words: "King Sneferu was very pleased. His brother Rahotep, an energetic, handsome young man with black hair and a debonair moustache, had returned from his raid across the southern border into Nubia laden with booty. The Nubians had put up very little fight and surrendered with hardly any bloodshed. The might of the Egyptian king was already a legend in foreign lands; and the arrival of his well-trained troops, breaching the rocky impassability of the First Cataract with speed and efficiency, had struck fear into the hearts of the enemy...." Hawass gives special thanks to Trace Murphy, whom he met at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, for inspiring him to write a popular book on the history of the Fourth Dynasty, something which has never been done before. He met the challenge head on. Who better to write about the Pyramid Age? Hawass has been working steadily at Giza since 1987, and not only instituted the Pyramids Master Plan for the long-term safety and preservation of the ancient monuments, but has made many wonderful discoveries there. "One of the achievements of which I am most proud is the Sphinx Conservation Project," he says of the decade-long effort which was completed in 1997. Hawass asserts that the Pyramids and their attendant Sphinx at Giza are often taken out of contact, treated as if they had appeared magically and stand alone, while they are, in fact, the culmination of a long sequence of development that began hundreds of years earlier with the tombs of the earliest kings and princes of Egypt and accelerated rapidly during the century before the reign of Khufu. "By piecing together our bits of evidence -- tombs, texts, reliefs, bones, and everyday objects," Hawass writes in the Introduction to his Mountains of the Pharaohs, "we can create a picture of the world of the great Pyramid builders. "There will be large gaps and faint places, and even outright mistakes that will be corrected as more evidence emerges from the sands of Egypt, but our picture is already full and vibrant. I must warn you now that there will be no aliens, no mysterious people from Atlantis, in this world..." he stresses. "The Pyramids were built by native Egyptians in the third millennium BC by the very men and women whose bones we are now finding in the sands nearby. Scholars may argue about the details, but the basic facts are irrefutable." Chapter 2, entitled "The Early Reign of Khufu" (builder of the Great Pyramid) begins with the following narrative: "The funeral was over; the old king had been laid to rest in his pyramid, and the new king had been crowned. All was in order. It was time to start the cycle anew, to choose a site for the pyramid that would serve as the focus for the new king's cult. The new vizier, Hemiun... met with the young king in his private chambers in the palace at Dashur, away from the pomp and formality of the throne room where the old king had attended to public matters of state..." One cannot resist reading on and learning, how Khufu and Hemiun chose the site for the Great Pyramid; drew up plans; performed the foundation ceremony; and "went about building the spiral ramp of mud brick, mud, and stone rubble that would wind its way round the four faces of the Pyramid, rising as the Pyramid itself rose". A new theory, proposed by French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin, is not ignored. Houdin suggests that this spiral ramp actually lay just inside the outer face of the Pyramid, and it is worthwhile noting that Hawass does not neglect to include up-to- date theories which are scattered throughout the text. This may be a historical narrative, but it is based on the most up-to-date observations presented in an engaging and lucid manner. Unique to Khufu's complex is the arrangement of his boat pits. These are also covered in the narrative, including the southern pit discovered by Egyptian archaeologist Kamal El-Mallakh in 1954 where the wooden boat was found in pieces and reconstructed by conservator Haj Ahmed Youssef. Hawass does not neglect to write about the episode when the National Geographic Society inserted a camera into a boat pit on the Giza plateau in 1988 and found that it contained another dismantled boat. He includes the conservation work carried out on this pit by the Japanese, and the many different theories about the functions of Khufu's five boat pits. Hawass has outshone himself in this narrative history of the Fourth Dynasty, which is also a drama. We learn about Khufu's court, his family, his administration; of squabbles that tore apart the royal family after his death; about the conspiracies of Khafre, his eventual successor; about Khafre's Pyramid complex, which is very well preserved; and the great city of workers, artisans, and minor officials involved in the construction of the monument in a great city that grew up south of his Valley Temple. This city contained the administration and priesthood as well as the men and women who worked together, "serving their new king and ensuring Egypt's position on earth and Khafre's future as god." The narrative introduction to Chapter 14, entitled "The Court of Khafre", begins: "It could be exhausting being Horus on earth. Before he had become king, he had only one wife; now he had several, and had to balance their needs and desires, and the competing claims of their children..." The narrative introduction to Chapter 18, entitled "The Lives of the Pyramid Builders", reads: "It was hot in the quarry, the sun blazing down on the toiling men..." This is a book that brings the Pyramid age to life as never before, and while Hawass thanks Andrew Corbin, Martha Schwartz, and Janice Kamrin for their assistance, as well as his own assistant Tark El-Awady, this has clearly been a labour of love. For centuries the great Pyramids have inspired theories about their origins, purpose, and methods of construction. Scholars and archaeologists, astronomers and painters, poets and travellers, have all had their say on these wonders of the ancient world. Mark Lehner's The Complete Pyramids, published in 1997, is a definitive and authoritative sourcebook for scholars, students, and travellers alike. So what, we are tempted to ask, does Hawass's " Mountains of the Pharaohs: The Untold Story of the Pyramid Builders" contain that is new? Simply, it is a gripping story of the royal family who were responsible for the creation of these mighty monuments, and it presents a unique view of the Pyramid Age written by a scholar who argues forcefully that they were built by skilled craftsmen who took pride in their work. Hawass is passionate about the Pyramids of Giza and the Pyramid Plateau as well as the revelations that have been, and still are being made of the aristocratic era of the Fourth Dynasty. The vizier, who administered the country for the Pharaoh, was frequently, but not always, his eldest son who succeeded to the throne. The governors in the provinces in Upper and Lower Egypt were selected noblemen appointed by the Pharaoh, who were given honorary titles and estates, and constructed their tombs in orderly rows on the royal necropolis in the shadow of the Pyramid of their monarch. Hawass presents an engaging and accessible picture of Khufu, who commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza; of Khafre who built the Second Pyramid -- not as large as Khufu's but which, because its base is at a higher level and the angle of its incline slightly steeper, appears to be as large; and the Pyramid of Menkaure, the third and smallest Pyramid at Giza, which occupies less than a quarter of the area covered by the Great Pyramid. The narrative introducing Chapter 16, entitled "Menkaure Ascends the Throne" reads: "Of the many grandsons of Khufu, Prince Menkaure stood out from the rest. A son of Khafre, he was young and vigorous but already wise beyond his years. It was as if the gods had touched him with greatness; in him lay the genius of diplomacy, just what was needed to reconcile the warring factions within the royal family. He had studied with the priests of Heliopolis an was certain to make peace with them too." Hawass points out that Menkaure's Valley Temple provides archaeological evidence for the ongoing cults of the Giza kings and also paints a picture for us of the actual, rather than the idea, life of a pyramid cult". He writes: "Although the king's name continued to be honoured, his monuments did not fare quite as well ... residents of the village sprawled around his temple smashed some of the royal statues to make model vessels for use in contemporary tombs... Before the temple was abandoned after a flash flood, the people charged with maintaining Menkaure's memorial service, who were clearly very poor, plundered the magazines... The evidence for this lies strewn about the floor of the court..." This is an important book. Hawass reveals that the Pyramid projects were important unifying forces for the country as a whole. He shows that the workshops attached to them were in fact schools to teach arts and crafts, and that the workmen came from all over the country to participate in Pyramid building, bringing with them local customs and picking up the habits and styles of the capital and thus creating "a national culture". He points out that the vast royal estates were tools for redistribution in a land where the population was dependent on agriculture and animal husbandry, and that all those involved in the Pyramids or royal cults rites were paid from the products of these estates -- the men and women of the court were rewarded for their loyalty and excellent service from these public treasuries. What led to the collapse of one of the most powerful royal houses in the history of the world? Hawass covers this too, in his Conclusion. No more convincing theory has yet been presented. Reviewed by Jill Kamel
