"Could the Great Pyramid of Giza be a repository of ancient magical knowledge? Or perhaps evidence of a vanished pre-Ice Age civilization? Misinformation and myths have attached themselves to the Egyptian pyramids since ancient Greece and Rome. While many Americans believe that the pyramids were built by aliens, archaeologists understand that the Giza pyramids were built by the pharaohs of the fourth dynasty, around 2450 BCE. So why is there such a disconnect between scholarly opinion and the popular view of Egypt? In The Legends of the Pyramids, Jason Colavito takes us back to Late Antique Egypt, where the replacement of polytheism with Christianity gave rise to local efforts to rewrite the stories of Egyptian history in the image of the Bible. When theArab conquest absorbed Egypt into the Islamic ummah, these stories then passed into Islamic historiography and reentered the West. Colavito's The Legends of the Pyramids lays open pop culture's view of Egypt in movies, TV shows, popular books, and New Age beliefs, detailing how the "hidden" history of Egypt has grown alongside the official history of archaeology and Egyptology"--
Could the Great Pyramid of Giza be a repository of ancient magical knowledge? Or perhaps evidence of a vanished preIce Age civilization?
Misinformation and myths have attached themselves to the Egyptian pyramids since ancient Greece and Rome. While many Americans believe that the pyramids were built by aliens, archaeologists understand that the Giza pyramids were built by the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty around 2450 BCE. So why is there such a disconnect between scholarly opinion and the popular view of Egypt? In The Legends of the Pyramids, Jason Colavito takes us back to Late Antique Egypt, where the replacement of polytheism with Christianity gave rise to local efforts to rewrite the stories of Egyptian history in the image of the Bible. When the Arab conquest absorbed Egypt into the Islamic community, these stories then passed into Islamic historiography and reentered the West.
Colavito's The Legends of the Pyramids lays open pop culture's view of Egypt in movies, TV shows, popular books, and New Age beliefs, detailing how the hidden history of Egypt has grown alongside the official history of archaeology and Egyptology.
* In the vein of the Prothero titles, which have sold well. * Well-researched book which traces the origins of popular myths surrounding the pyramids. * It examines Egypt from the point of view of pop culture and myth rather than academic history. * It is one of the first books to fully explore the influence of medieval Islam on modern myths of Egypt. * It connects stories from Classical Antiquity down to modern movies to show they are part of a continuous whole. * It includes discussion and translation of rare ancient and medieval texts almost never discussed in the West.
