In a mere 20 years the Egyptians could complete the most wondrous and monumental building known to man, but in over 150 years today's scholars and archaeologists can't write a more fascinating account of Egyptian life than J. Gardner Wilkinson. To be fair, knowledge of Egyptian life was more available to travelling scholars of the nineteenth century, a time before massive archaeological expedition, due to the Egyptian penchant for decorating their tomb walls with their customs and patterns, thus any talent with interest in the last 200 years was bound to hit a grand slam that would resound through the decades. Though at times a bit naive to modern sensibilities, the amount of restrospectively accurate speculation that Wilkinson engages in not only makes for a much more interesting text than any modern introductory tome but frequently adds levels of sophistication that must have been expected out of any nineteenth century reader. Again, to be fair, this contemporary cultural dearth might be because so much research has gone into each ponderous fancy of yonder days that to touch on each one in a modern text would take up too much ink. Whether or not that is the case it makes for a much drier modern scholarly experience.