A pioneer of British Egyptology, Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797-1875) first travelled to Egypt in 1821, the year before Champollion published his breakthrough work on the Rosetta Stone. As public interest in Egypt grew, Wilkinson studied and sketched the country's major archaeological sites, most notably the tombs of Thebes. His Topography of Thebes and General View of Egypt (1835) and Modern Egypt and Thebes (1843) are also reissued in this series. This well-illustrated three-volume work, first published in 1837, remained for over a century a key text on the lives of ancient Egyptians. Writing in a popular genre that was normally focused on contemporary societies, Wilkinson addresses areas ranging from daily life to funerary beliefs. His imaginative approach underpinned the book's considerable success. The coverage includes physical and human geography, architecture, diet, music, hunting techniques, decorative arts, and the building and decoration of monuments.

A pioneer of British Egyptology, Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797-1875) first travelled to Egypt in 1821, the year before Champollion published his breakthrough work on the Rosetta Stone. As public interest in Egypt grew, Wilkinson studied and sketched the country's major archaeological sites, most notably the tombs of Thebes. His celebrated Topography of Thebes and General View of Egypt (1835) and Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (1837) are also reissued in this series. A remodelled and enlarged version of the former work, this two-volume guide of 1843 not only gives practical advice for the contemporary traveller, but also provides modern readers with a vivid snapshot of Egypt in the middle of the nineteenth century. Volume 1 includes a host of recommendations, such as which ships to take and which hotels to stay in. Volume 2 includes further guidance, along with a section on the history of Egypt that incorporates chronological tables of rulers from the pharaohs onward.