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Pharaohs of the Sun

Radio 4 Book of the Week, How Egypt's Despots and Dreamers Drove the Rise and Fall of Tutankhamun's Dynasty

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Pharaohs of the Sun

By: Guy de la Bédoyère
Narrated by: Mark Meadows
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Summary

 For more than two centuries Egypt was ruled by the most powerful, successful, and richest dynasty of kings in its long end epic history. They included the female king Hatshepsut, the warrior kings Thutmose III and Amenhotep II, the religious radical Akhenaten and his queen Nefertiti, and most famously of all for the wealth of his tomb the short-lived boy king Tutankhamun. The power and riches of the Pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty came at enormous cost to Egypt's enemies and most of its people. This was an age of ruthless absolutism, exploitation, extravagance, brutality, and oppression in a culture where not only did Egypt plunder its neighbours but Egyptian kings and their people robbed one another.

3,500 years ago ancient Egypt began two centuries in which it became richer and more powerful than any other nation at the time, ruled by the kings of the 18th Dynasty. They presided over a system built on war, oppression, and ruthlessness, pouring Egypt's wealth into grandiose monuments, temples, and extravagant tombs. Tutankhamun was one of the last of the line and one of the most obscure. Among his predecessors were some of the most notorious and enigmatic figures of all of Egypt's history. Pharaohs of the Sun is their story, showing how the glamour and gold was tainted by selfishness, ostentation, and the systematic exploitation of Egypt's people and enemies.©2022 Guy de la Bédoyère Ancient Architecture Egypt Middle East Africa Pharaoh Royalty Ancient Egypt
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Critic reviews

An impressive amalgamation of scholarly research with popular history
A scrupulous yet accessible history of ancient Egypt under the 18th dynasty... Complemented by striking illustrations and valuable appendices, this impressive survey will be welcomed by ancient history buffs
Superb... de la Bédoyere lays out the elusive history of Egypt's 18th dynasty
Packed with big names, from Tutankhamun to Nefertiti, and de la Bédoyere sets their stories alongside those of the populations they so often exploited... Along the way, he offers an evocative account of an era of epic riches and ruthlessness
De la Bédoyere tells the story with not just an archaeologist's eye for accuracy but also a broadcaster's nose for a colourful story... His book is peppered with lively details
All stars
Most relevant
DNF: I tried, I really did! The book began with a sort of slap in the face to all who held any reverence for the story of Ancient Egypt.
A quite aggressive and disrespectful take down of any notions that the Egyptians were to be admired let alone revered, contextualising them as just another self serving colonial Empire of shocking brutality, whose wealth was built on slavery and who plundered their conquests only to expand the wealth and prestige of the Pharonic families. Seen through the lens of 2025 this may all be true, but its a reductive and myopic way to tell a story of one of the greatest civilisations ever known to us.
Had this preface been in service of a rollicking good tale of the rise and fall of the evil empire, it might have been justified. It was not.
The writer chooses a particular Dynasty, and if he may have explained why, I have forgotten it already. It seems entirely arbitrary.
Essentially what follows is a great deal of properly researched archeological insight, shared in a rather glib manner suggesting a proper disdain for these undemocratic types from yesteryear in thrall to their own lies (mythologies etc).
What it never does in the 40-50% i read, is amount to a narrative story in any way. There is nothing to really bind these endless insights. Nothing to draw one in and hold one’s attention. It almost feels like an index to academic studies that exist elsewhere. Perhaps the snide dismissals of the prologue should have been kept for an epilogue? Perhaps there is a wonderful epilogue, but I will never know. I just cant face the grinding out of any more opaque genealogical references or caveated perspectives on some half-clue to who these people were. Either we know enough to tell a story or we don’t. It may be that the weakness is in the source material’s but i doubt it. Ive read much of English history in what was until very recently always referred to as The Dark Ages (because of the absolute scarcity of documentary records) , but more than one author managed to weave a narrative that brought the peoples to vivid life, so I suspect it is this author’s failure.
As a friend of mine says, no regrets, but life’s too short

Worthy but unsatisfying

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