This well-illustrated volume represents an extensive analysis of kingship in ancient Egypt. Each of the six contributing authors investigates particular areas of his own expertise. Among the topics covered are the origin of kingship, its distinctive traits and its general nature, and its reflection in royal art and architecture.

This book presents a history of ancient Egyptian kingship. It examines the basis of kingship and its legitimacy.

Experiencing Power, Generating Authority offers a cross-cultural comparison of the cosmic ideology and political structure of kingship in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

A fresh look at the British Museum's celebrated and extensive ancient Egyptian collection from across three thousand years Pharaoh: King of Ancient Egypt introduces readers to three thousand years of Egypt's ancient history by unveiling its famous rulers--the pharaohs--using some of the finest objects from the vast holdings of the British Museum, along with masterworks from the collection fo the Cleveland Museum of Art.. In an introductory essay, Margaret Maitland looks at Egyptian kingship in terms of both ideology and practicality. Then Aude Semat considers the Egyptian image of kingship, its roles and its uses. In ten additional sections, Marie Vandenbeusch delves into themes related to the land of ancient Egypt, conceptions of kingship, the exercise of power, royal daily life, war and diplomacy, and death and afterlife. Detailed entries by Vandenbeusch and Semat cover key works relating to the pharaohs. These objects, beautifully illustrated in 180 photographs, include monumental sculpture, architectural pieces, funerary objects, exquisite jewelry, and papyri. The rulers of ancient Egypt were not always male, or even always Egyptian. At times, Egypt was divided by civil war, conquered by foreign powers, or ruled by competing kings. Many of the objects surviving from ancient Egypt represent the image a pharaoh wanted to project, but this publication also looks past the myth to explore the realities and immense challenges of ruling one of the greatest civilizations the world has seen.

This classic study clearly establishes a fundamental difference in viewpoint between the peoples of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. By examining the forms of kingship which evolved in the two countries, Frankfort discovered that beneath resemblances fostered by similar cultural growth and geographical location lay differences based partly upon the natural conditions under which each society developed. The river flood which annually renewed life in the Nile Valley gave Egyptians a cheerful confidence in the permanence of established things and faith in life after death. Their Mesopotamian contemporaries, however, viewed anxiously the harsh, hostile workings of nature. Frank's superb work, first published in 1948 and now supplemented with a preface by Samuel Noah Kramer, demonstrates how the Egyptian and Mesopotamian attitudes toward nature related to their concept of kingship. In both countries the people regarded the king as their mediator with the gods, but in Mesopotamia the king was only the foremost citizen, while in Egypt the ruler was a divine descendant of the gods and the earthly representative of the God Horus.

Written in the tradition of historians like Mary Beard and Stacy Schiff who find modern lessons in ancient history, this provocative narrative explores the lives of five remarkable pharaohs who ruled Egypt with absolute power, shining a new light on the country's 3,000-year empire and its meaning today. In a new era when democracies around the world are threatened or crumbling, best-selling author Kara Cooney turns to five ancient Egyptian pharaohs--Khufu, Senwosret III, Akenhaten, Ramses II, and Taharqa--to understand why many so often give up power to the few, and what it can mean for our future. As the first centralized political power on earth, the pharaohs and their process of divine kingship can tell us a lot about the world's politics, past and present. Every animal-headed god, every monumental temple, every pyramid, every tomb, offers extraordinary insight into a culture that combined deeply held religious beliefs with uniquely human schemes to justify a system in which one ruled over many. From Khufu, the man who built the Great Pyramid at Giza as testament to his authoritarian reign, and Taharqa, the last true pharaoh who worked to make Egypt great again, we discover a clear lens into understanding how power was earned, controlled, and manipulated in ancient times. And in mining the past, Cooney uncovers the reason why societies have so willingly chosen a dictator over democracy, time and time again.