Book Description
The Rough Guide to Egypt is the ultimate guide to this fascinating country. The guide opens with a 24-page, full-colour section introducing EgyptÂ's highlights, including in-depth accounts of all the top sites, from the pyramids at Giza to the incredible tombs in the Valley of the Kings. The main heart of the guide includes detailed, insider listings on where to find the tastiest food and the best places to stay, whether youÂ're on a budget or travelling in style. There is plenty of practical advice on a host of outdoor pursuits, including diving in the Red Sea to camel-trekking in the Western desert. The guide also includes thorough and informed commentary on EgyptÂ's history and contemporary culture, as well as detailed maps and plans for every region.Â
Customer Reviews:
Egypt.......2007-09-21
Excellent guide book with lots of good suggestions. Buy it before going to Egypt. This is a must have.
Egypt travel guide.......2007-03-09
Choc full of good and interesting information. Layouts of pyramids, temples, touring info, cautions, advice, etc. Very good and I will take the book to refer during my upcoming trip.
Excellent.......2006-09-23
All rough guides that I have encountered are chock full of great information. The Egypt guide in particular is one of the best. The number of maps is fantastic and the quality of the information is comparable to what you usually have to visit the site to obtain.
Saves money big time.......2006-07-06
I went to Egypt in February 2006 with my wife and our two boys (5 and 2.5 years). Although we took a package tour to Hurghada, we actually overnighted there only three nights of the eleven we were in Egypt. The rest we spent moving around (Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, busses, train, cruise ship, jeep). For the whole trip we spent around 1000 USD plus the package. We could have easily spent twice as much (or, more precisely -- seen twice as little because the budget was limited) if not the hints in the book.
Thanks to this book we got a great offer for a two night last-minute Nile cruise from Aswan to Luxor. By taxi (30 USD, 80 km round trip, an option that without the book would not be even considered) we visited pyramids of Giza and Dahshur. Dahshur (as described in the book) has the second largest pyramid in Egypt as well as the strangest-shaped one (The Bent Pyramid). We were there alone if not the half a dozen French travellers -- it is an experience much different from one you get at Giza where your awe about the greatness of the structures is mixed considerably with the awe about the number of people around.
The bargaining tips and information on ticket prices were so accurate in tiniest details! We started laughing when a typical merchant approached us in Luxor and asked for our help in writing a letter in English to "his friend from abroad" -- our book speciffically mentioned this trick used by shopkeepers to lure unsuspecting tourists!
Enough -- if you are going to Egypt and want to see the real thing, get this book!
Great So Far.......2006-01-26
I arrived in Egypt this week and have been using this guide to help me get aquainted with it. I don't have any other guides to compare it to, but I can say that the organization, writing, maps, extras, and overall quality of the book seem to be excellent. It has been very helpful so far.
The most outstanding features to me so far is the sensible organization of the book, the readablity and humor of the writing, and the excellent maps. However, if you're wanting lots of pictures, you'll need to look elsewhere. It does have some nice pictures at the very beginning, about the first 30 pages, but that's it, you won't find another. After that it's all text, maps, extra's, and special features.
There is a helpful Language section in the back that covers basics of Egyptian Arabic and it has been very helpful to me so far, but it is only the very basics of the language, as I suppose is to be expected from such a book. You'll need another source if you want to try and have any kind of descent communication with most people here, as far as I can tell. It's been my experience that the majority of people here in Egypt speak pretty poor English- quite a bit worse than I expected. But, the Language section will help you with the most basic situations.
I really like the writing style. It rarely gets stiff and boring. It flows well and can be quite funny. It's not "just the facts." There's a little spice thrown in... fitting, for the country it's written about.
Book Description
INTRODUCTION
Egypt is the oldest tourist destination on earth. Ancient Greeks and Romans started the trend, coming to goggle at the cyclopean scale of the Pyramids and the Colossi of Thebes. At the onset of colonial times, Napoleon and the British in turn looted Egypt's treasures to fill their national museums, sparking off a trickle of Grand Tourists that eventually became a flood of travellers, packaged for their Nile cruises and Egyptological lectures by the enterprising Thomas Cook.
Today, the attractions of the country are not only the monuments of the Nile Valley and the souks, mosques and madrassas of Islamic Cairo, but the natural wonders of the Red Sea, Sinai, and the Eastern and Western deserts: fantastic coral reefs and tropical fish, dunes and rockscapes - plus ancient fortresses, monasteries and rock art.
The land itself is a freak of nature, whose lifeblood is the River Nile. From the Sudanese border to the shores of the Mediterranean, the Nile Valley and its Delta are flanked by arid wastes, the latter as empty as the former are teeming with people. This stark duality between fertility and desolation is fundamental to Egypt's character and has shaped its development since prehistoric times, imparting continuity to diverse cultures and peoples over seven millennia. It is a sense of permanence and timelessness that is buttressed by religion, which pervades every aspect of life. Although the pagan cults of ancient Egypt are as moribund as its legacy of mummies and temples, their ancient fertility rites and processions of boats still hold their place in the celebrations of Islam and Christianity.
The result is a multi-layered culture, which seems to accord equal respect to ancient and modern. The peasants (fellaheen) of the Nile and Bedouin tribes of the desert live much as their ancestors did a thousand years ago. Other communities include the Nubians of the far south, and the Coptic Christians, who trace their ancestry back to pharaonic times. What unites them is a love of their homeland, extended family ties, dignity, warmth and hospitality towards strangers. Though most visitors are drawn to Egypt by its monuments, the enduring memory is likely to be of its people and their way of life.
Customer Reviews:
Best Guide for Independent Travel.......2005-05-30
We had purchased both LP and Rough Guide for our Egypt trip this past April (2005). I was reluctant to get RG for two reasons: 1. I generally think LP's are better and am used to their user-friendly format. 2. RG's most recent edition was published in early 2003 and with all the recent uncertainty in the area, I was nervous to rely on information from 2-3 years ago. However, for this trip, the RG was far better! The main reason it was more useful than LP was that it contained much more detailed explanations of the sites/museums. This book contained maps to almost all the major sites/museums with corresponding letters to explanations of the hieroglyphics/objects within the sites/museums - Far more information than LP. Of course, it also had the usual practical information (hotels, restaurants, getting around, etc.) which we relied upon as well. If you want to choose just one book to take with you as an independent traveler, my advice is to take this one.
Essential Guide for Egypt.......2005-01-31
I just returned from a month in Egypt. I bought this book at a bookstore in Cairo and I can't tell you how amazing it is. It is so richly packed with information including walking guides through Islamic Cairo and the Cairo Museum. Brilliant book. The author knows Egypt inside and out and I cannot stress enough... if you are going to Egypt.. BUY THIS BOOK! Great maps, language section and very easy to reference in a hurry. The prices are a bit outdated but you will learn what is standard shortly after you get there anyway.
The best guide to Egypt!.......2004-12-22
I bought this guide before I left for Egypt this past spring and let me tell you, I was amazed at how useful it proved to be. I spent 5 months in Cairo and I took it with me every time I went out! It has all the information you need to visit the most popular places, as well as some of the most innaccesible areas. I was able to figure out bus schedules for trips to Maadi, Giza, Mohandeseen & Saqqara, as well as entertainment information and cultural advice. I learned from it how much I should pay for a taxi and where to find belly-dancing outfits at Khan-el-Khalili. Also, I used it to go around Islamic Cairo and visit some of the most wonderful mosques, all on my own. Their maps and nformation are invaluable! They even cover trips to the oasis, Sinai and places only an Egyptologist would know of! (I was amazed).
In addition, it has useful arabic phrases, guides to cities and ancient sities with descriptions and historical background. Really, get one before you leave! I used the Rough guide to Syria and it is just as good...
Best of several guide books we brought to Egypt.......2004-03-17
While my companion and I had four guide books between us for our two week trip, the Rough Guide was the one that we constantly referred to. After a while, we didn't even look at the others, even though they had fancier and more colorful illustrations. By far, the Rough Guide gave us more, and more useful, information on the locations we visited than the others. The descriptions of the various neighborhoods and the sights along the way were most helpul in our planning for the one free day in Cairo that we had from our group tour. We also appreciated the discussion of customs and practices (the notes on baksheesh, for example, helped us gain a better understanding of a practice that many Americans found annoying). An added benefit: it weighed less than the fancier guides with glossy pages, so it was far easier to carry with us.
The Rough Guide to Egypt.......2003-07-27
Overall I was quite pleased with this guide. It provided accurate information for transportaion details, hotels and restaurants and gave good basic introductions to the sites and cities, as well as what to expect in the culture. The city maps were accurate and the maps of ancient egyptian monuments were helpful and enough for me, though anyone with a serious interest in them will want to pick up something extra (the guide recommends titles). DOn't rely on the arabic section at the back - if you need to teach yourself any arabic for a trip you'd do best to buy an egytian arabic phrasebook as the rough guides section is small and can mislead your pronounciation.
Book Description
The Rough Guide to Egypt is your indispensable guide to the oldest tourist destination on earth. The full- colour introduction highlights ''what not to miss'', from jeep or camel safaris in the Western desert to the pyramids and Sphinx at Giza. This fully-updated 7
th edition includes expanded coverage of Nile cruises and diving in the Red Sea and Mediterranean, as well as up-to-date coverage of Cairo, with accommodation and restaurants conveniently organised by district. The guide includes brand new âauthors picksâ section highlighting all the top places to eat, drink and stay to suit every budget and new colour sections on temples, Islamic architecture and reef flora and fauna. The guide also takes a comprehensive look at Egypt’s fascinating history and culture and comes complete with maps and plans for every area.
The Rough Guide to Egypt is like having a local friend plan your trip!
Book Description
Make new friends with the help of the revised Rough Guide Egyptian Arabic Phrasebook. Whether you want to book a hotel room, hire a car or check the local bus times, this pocket-sized phrasebook will have you speaking the language in no time. Laid out in a clear A-Z style, the third edition includes 16-pages of additional scenario material. The scenarios - recorded by native speakers - are available to download either to your computer or iPod Â- ideal for practising your pronunciation. There is a detailed grammar section and a helpful menu and drinks list reader, perfect for choosing the right dish in a restaurant. With this phrasebook in your pocket you will never run out of things to say - reHla saAeeda!
Customer Reviews:
Small and practical.......2007-07-28
This small phrasebook cum dictionary is one of the most useful buys you could make before visiting Egypt. The words included seem, for the most part, to high-frequency words, and the phrases themselves are those that would be used on many occasions. Verry worthwhile.
Average customer rating:
- Invaluable
- A chronology, not a history
- The answer to the needs of everyone interested in Egypt
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The Rough Guide History of Egypt
Rough Guides
Manufacturer: Rough Guides
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ASIN: 1858289408 |
Book Description
INTRODUCTION
Egypt appears on the map as a large rectangle at the northeast corner of Africa with Sinai as a small triangular peninsula at the southwest corner of Asia. Through Sinai runs the Suez Canal, which provides the shortest link between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea, while Sinai itself is the only land bridge between Africa and the remainder of the Eastern Hemisphere. Egypt therefore controls a great international crossroads, so that even if it did not share a border with Israel, its geographical position would ensure it a major role in the politics of the Middle East. To this must be added Egypt's qualities of endurance and stability in a region of conflict and flux - well illustrated by the fact that this paragraph as accurately describes Egypt's place in the world during the first millennium BC as in our own third millennium AD.
In the course of those thousands of years, Egypt has known many empires that have come and gone - Persian, Greek, Roman, Arab, Ottoman, British - so that today it is America which cajoles and courts the ancient nation on the Nile. With the aim of ensuring Egypt's cooperation in the task of maintaining stability in the region, the United States has been pouring nearly a billion dollars a year into the Egyptian economy since Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, making Egypt along with Israel the world's largest recipients of American aid - and this is not to mention further contributions from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Union and Japan.
Egypt's desperate need for financial assistance arises in large part from the failure of its bureaucratic state-directed economy, an inheritance from the centralized socialist regime of president Gamal Abdel Nasser during the 1950s and 1960s, and which is only very slowly being reformed. Egypt also suffers from rapid population growth, which strains its ability to provide adequate educational and health facilities and employment to its people, and threatens to exhaust natural resources, in particular the supply of water.
Though nearly twice the size of France and a third the size of the United States, Egypt is an almost entirely rainless country of dry and barren desert where only a few oasis-dwellers and nomadic Bedouins can survive. As the River Nile is the only perennial water source in Egypt, nearly all the nation's seventy million inhabitants are confined to that three percent of the country taken up by the Nile Valley and the Delta. The very existence of the Egyptian people depends on the Nile - which throughout their history has been both their provider and taskmaster.
Egyptians began recording their history five thousand years ago when King Menes, in one of the earliest examples of writing in the world, commemorated his unification of Upper and Lower Egypt - that is, the Nile Valley upriver from his new capital of Memphis and the Nile Delta downriver to the north. Strong centralized rule organized the resources of a united Egypt and unleashed its potential with sudden and startling effect, so that within four hundred years King Cheops was building his Great Pyramid, still the largest building (by volume) standing on the face of the earth.
Architectural, cultural and political patterns established at the beginning of pharaonic history served Egypt for three thousand years and more, into the period of Greek rule following the invasion of Alexander the Great, and Egypt's incorporation into the Roman Empire after the death of Cleopatra. During this Graeco-Roman period, it is no exaggeration to say that Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt was the cultural and intellectual capital of the world. In Alexandria, too, with its mixed Egyptian, Jewish and Greek civilization, Christianity was developed and transformed into a universal faith - not least because of Egypt's contribution of a powerful imagery to the new religion, such as the Virgin and Child and the Cross and the Resurrection, symbols that can be traced back to the earliest notions in Egyptian belief.
The great discontinuity in Egyptian history was the Arab invasion of the 7th century and the introduction of Islam. Through its abjuration of images, its conviction that nothing worth acknowledging preceded the teachings of Mohammed, and by its subjection and persecution of the Copts, the native inhabitants of the country, Islam destroyed much of Egypt's cultural inheritance. Yet in place of Alexandria, and not far from the crumbling ruins of Memphis, the Arabs' own foundation of Cairo became one of the great medieval cities, a magnificent treasure trove of Islamic architecture arising amid the rich and exotic caravanserai of trade linking East and West, the fabulous city of The Thousand and One Nights.
From Cairo in the late 1100s, Saladin launched his campaign against the Crusaders in Palestine and Syria, as a century later the Mamelukes rode out from the city to destroy the Mongol hordes that had been ravaging the Middle East and Europe. But Mameluke power weakened when European ships found their way round Africa to India and the Far East, bypassing the trade counters of Cairo, and the Turkish invasion in 1517 reduced Egypt to a provincial backwater of the Ottoman Empire.
The ancient idea of a canal linking the Mediterranean with the Red Sea was revived by Napoleon when he invaded Egypt in 1798 with the intention of undermining Britain's command of the ocean route to India. The encounter marked the beginning of Egypt's often turbulent relationship with the West, as an impoverished and benighted backwater became forcibly exposed to the modern - if imperfect - world of science, industry, capital and secular thought.
In the last half-century or so, an independent Egypt has moved from a landed oligarchy under a constitutional monarchy to socialism within a police state and now to an increasingly privatized and free market economy under a veiled military dictatorship, which permits a cautious freedom of public expression. Yet if this is progress, it is also true that the Egypt of today is almost unrecognizable from that of even thirty years ago, when secular trends were still paramount. Now Islamic fundamentalists operate within the political system, where they press for the full adoption of traditional Islamic law and work for the complete Islamization of Egyptian society. Their aim is to reinstitute a `golden age' enjoyed during the earliest days of Islam in the 7th century; but to outside eyes, and indeed in the eyes of many Egyptians, they want to return Egypt to something more like the Dark Ages.
Religiosity has always played a powerful role in Egyptian society, not least when it has disguised from Egyptians themselves the great changes their seemingly changeless world is undergoing. As much as Islamization may appear to be a rejection of secular progress, in fact it may be the means by which necessary and inevitable changes are accepted and legitimized in the name of holy law.
Customer Reviews:
Invaluable.......2003-10-22
There is nothing else like this: a review of five thousand years of Egyptian history. This book sets the context for everything else you might want to read; it puts eras and events into perspective. Its massive bibliography will point you in the right direction, whether you want to read up on the modern or Arab or Ptolemaic or pharaonic periods. It is clear, reliable, and very well written. I cannot recommend it highly enough -- to students, to travelers, to anyone interested in Egypt.
A chronology, not a history.......2003-08-26
This book is not really a history. It is more of a timeline, but one for thousands of years of Egyptian history. It will give you information about dates and events, but very little analysis.
However, I am not aware of any other book for the general reader which covers the whole span of Egypt's long and amazing history, a history which did not end with Cleopatra VII's suicide. This book is useful for the tourist or the casual reader, but not for the serious student of history.
The answer to the needs of everyone interested in Egypt.......2003-07-16
This is really a remarkable book, as it starts with the prehistory of Egypt, then covers three thousand years of ancient pharaonic times, and another two thousand years of Romans, Arabs and the present day -- and it never loses its detail, its readability, its reliability. No other book of this scope has ever been written, and its a godsend to all of us fascinated by Egypt that this book is available to us now. It is a must for our bookshelves, and it is designed to fit into anyone's pocket so can accompany you on your travels down the Nile, into the office, or into the university library.
Product Description
Rip-proof waterproof plastic map. Clear modern mapping and bang-up-to-date research. Printed on non-toxic synthetic paper. Easy to refold. Scale 1:1,250,000.
Average customer rating:
- Really good
- Excellent and Insightful Companion
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The Rough Guide to Tutankhamun: The King - The Treasure - The Dynasty
Michael Haag
Manufacturer: Rough Guides
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The Complete Tutankhamun: The King, the Tomb, the Royal Treasure (King Tut)
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Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs: Official Companion Book to the Exhibition sponsored by National Geographic
ASIN: 1843535548 |
Customer Reviews:
Really good.......2005-08-17
This is a really good book, wonderful background on Tutankhamun and his times, full of information and a great guide to further reading. I recommend this book to anyone interested in Tutankhamun or in Ancient Egypt generally, and certainly to anyone thinking of going to the Tut exhibition.
Excellent and Insightful Companion.......2005-07-20
I read this book before visiting the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs in Los Angeles, and it really filled in the background for me. It also served well as a guide to the exhibition itself, and now afterwards I have been reading through parts of it again, discovering new insights. A truly excellent book for anyone interested in ancient Egypt -- whether you go to the Tutankhamun exhibition or not. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Average customer rating:
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The Rough Guide to The Music of Egypt (Rough Guide World Music CDs)
ROUGH GUIDES
Manufacturer: Rough Guides
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Binding: Audio CD
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ASIN: 1843531658
Release Date: 2003-09-25 |
Average customer rating:
- Thorough and accurate
- Rough Guide to Egypt
- WATCH WHEN THE BOOK WAS LAST UPDATED!!
- no cigar
- The ONLY book you need for Egypt
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Egypt: The Rough Guide, Fourth Edition (Rough Guides)
Dan Richardson , and
Karen O'Brien
Manufacturer: Rough Guides
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1858281881 |
Book Description
INTRODUCTION
Egypt is the oldest tourist destination on earth. Ancient Greeks and Romans started the trend, coming to goggle at the cyclopean scale of the Pyramids and the Colossi of Thebes. At the onset of colonial times, Napoleon and the British in turn looted Egypt's treasures to fill their national museums, sparking off a trickle of Grand Tourists that, by the 1860s, had grown into a flood of travellers, packaged for their Nile cruises and Egyptological lectures by the enterprising Thomas Cook.
Today, the attractions of the country are little different. The focus of most visits remains the great monuments of the Nile Valley, combined with a few days spent exploring the souks, mosques and madrassas of Islamic Cairo. However, possibilities for Egyptian travel also encompass snorkelling and diving along the Red Sea coasts, remote oases and camel trips into the mountains of Sinai, or visits to the Coptic monasteries of the Eastern Desert.
The land itself is a freak of nature, whose lifeblood is the River Nile. From the Sudanese border to the shores of the Mediterranean, the Nile Valley and its Delta are flanked by arid wastes, the latter as empty as the former are teeming with people. This stark duality between fertility and desolation is fundamental to Egypt's character and has shaped its development since prehistoric times, imparting continuity to diverse cultures and peoples over five millennia. It is a sense of permanence and timelessness that is buttressed by religion, which pervades every aspect of life. Although the pagan cults of ancient Egypt are as moribund as its legacy of mummies and temples, their ancient fertility rites and processions of boats still hold their place in the celebrations of Islam and Christianity.
The result is a multi-layered culture, which seems to accord equal respect to ancient and modern. The peasants (fellaheen) of the Nile and Bedouin tribes of the desert live much as their ancestors did a thousand years ago. Other communities include the Nubians of the far south, and the Coptic Christians, who trace their ancestry back to pharaonic times. What unites them is a love of their homeland, extended family ties, dignity, warmth and hospitality towards strangers. Though most visitors are drawn to Egypt by its monuments, the enduring memory is likely to be of its people and their way of life.
REGIONS AND HIGHLIGHTS
Each of the regions is discussed in its own chapter introduction; what follows is merely the briefest outline of the main attractions.
Most visitors arrive at Cairo. A seething megalopolis, its chief sightseeing appeal lies in its bazaars and medieval mosques, though there is scarcely less fascination in its juxtapositions of medieval and modern life, with fortified gates, villas and skyscrapers interwoven by flyovers whose traffic may be halted by herds of camels. The immensity and diversity of this "Mother of Cities" is as staggering as anything you'll encounter in Egypt, while just outside Cairo are the first of the pyramids that range across the desert to the edge of the Fayoum, among them the unsurpassable trio at Giza and the vast necropolis of Saqqara. Besides all this, there are superb museums devoted to Ancient, Coptic and Islamic Egypt, and enough entertainments to occupy weeks of your time.
However, the principal tourist lure remains, as ever, the Nile Valley, with its ancient monuments and timeless river vistas - felucca sailboat cruises being a great way to combine the two. The town of Luxor is synonymous with the magnificent temples of Karnak and the Theban Necropolis, which includes the Valley of the Kings where Tutankhamun and other pharaohs were buried. Aswan, Egypt's southernmost city, has the loveliest setting on the Nile and a languorous ambience. From here, you can visit the island Philae temple of Isis and the rock-hewn colossi at Abu Simbel. Other sites not to be missed are Edfu and Kom Ombo (between Luxor and Aswan) and - for those willing to chance their luck on the fringes of potentially risky Middle Egypt - the amazing temples of Abydos and Dendara (north of Luxor).
Only accessible to tourists in the last two decades, the Western Desert Oases are scattered across a vast, awesomely desolate region. Siwa, out towards the Libyan border, has a unique culture and history, limpid pools and bags of charm. Another option is to follow the "Great Desert Circuit" (starting from Cairo or Assyut) through the four "inner" oases. Though Bahariya and Farafra hold the most appeal, with the lovely White Desert between them, the larger oases of Dakhla and Kharga also have their rewards once you escape their modernized "capitals". And for those equipped to make serious desert expeditions, there's the challenge of entering the Great Sand Sea or tracing part of the infamous Forty Days Road. By way of contrast to these deep-desert locations are the quasi-oases of the Fayoum and Wadi Natrun, with their diverse ancient ruins and Coptic monasteries.
Customer Reviews:
Thorough and accurate.......2002-03-11
I spent about a month reading this guide and the Lonely Planet series while planning my trip to Egypt... Well, they were both OK, but the Rough by Dan Richardson is way more detailed and has more practical info on fees, schedules, hotels and workarounds if something goes wrong. Through the trip (Hurghada - Aswan - Luxor - Cairo - Suez - Hurghada) the LP was what I read in the evening before going to museums or tombs and RG was what I carried around in my pocket through the day. My estimate is that I saved not less than fifty times the cost of this book just because I knew most of the prices and situations in advance, before bargaining :)
A must have for travel in Egypt
Rough Guide to Egypt.......2000-06-20
To the point, told you what you needed to know, without saturating you with information. I travelled with a couple of friends to Egypt and found their book to be more informative than mine, despite the fact that their Rough Guide was a little out of date when they bought it. It is especially useful if you are looking for cheap accomodation in Luxor and to a lesser extent, Aswan, plus it also provided some decent maps of both areas. One amusing snippet that caught my attention was the information about the back way into the Valley of the Kings (for the fit amongst you only) - you turn right just before the ticket collection point at Hapshepsut, passed the souvenir stalls and follow the path up the side of the hill. Once at the top and passed a hill on top, veer right again to go into the Valley of the Kings. Unlike the main entrance (where you are checked to see you have tickets), you don't have to pay to get in this way, but you can't get into any of the tombs if you haven't bought the tickets - courtesy of the information in Rough Guide. The Egyptians check for tickets again at each tomb entrance, which from what I can remember, you are told about in the book anyway. Still worth it for the views though, especially of Hapshepsut, but DON'T GO TOO NEAR THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF.
The Aswan bit is also clearer than other books, for example, one bit of info. it gives compared to others, is the fact that once you have paid to go to Philae Temple (which is on an island), you have to haggle with the owners of the boats in order to get there.
All in all, a very comprehensive book, but the edition I saw needed a little updating.
WATCH WHEN THE BOOK WAS LAST UPDATED!!.......2000-04-19
I used this book while in egypt. I found it to be very outdated and did not have much of the relevent information that I needed. I am normally a big fan of the rough guides but this purchase taught me the lesson that you need to be aware of when the book was published. I did not realize the book was nearly three years old when I bought it. If they have not come out with a recent update then purchase a different book -time schedules change rather frequently and the more uptodate the book is the better off you are.
no cigar.......2000-03-18
An industriously put together guidebook but poorly informed and dull to read. It's not bad on practical information but hardly turns up anything really new or interesting that you can't find in any other book. More importantly, you do not really have confidence that its authors know much about the history or culture of the country, while what they tell you of the sites seems either taken from other and better books or is what you can see for yourself. No insight, in other words, no gleams of illumination. And it is so politically correct that it is worse than having gippy tummy.
The ONLY book you need for Egypt.......2000-03-15
This book has a wonderful account of the history and culture of Egypt as well as ways on how to make your hard earned dollar do more for you by not letting people rip you off. If you don't like getting robbed by those crazy Egyptians and want to have fun in Egypt this is the book for YOU.
Average customer rating:
- Great book
- Excellent value
- The book was a nice book.
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Egyptian Arabic: A Rough Guide Phrasebook, First Edition (Phrase Book, Rough Guide)
Lexus
Manufacturer: Rough Guides
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Arabic
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Polyglot
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Arabic
| Instruction
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Miscellaneous
| Instruction
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Phrasebooks - General
| Instruction
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Words & Language
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Linguistics
| Words & Language
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Translating
| Words & Language
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1858283191 |
Book Description
Rough Guides phrasebooks add the Middle East to the areas of coverage in this dynamic series with the Egyptian Arabic Phrasebook. Travelers making their way around historic Egyptian sites will find this phrasebook's pronunciation guide especially invaluable.
Customer Reviews:
Great book.......2001-11-03
This book was very helpful not only with phrases, but with everyday things to be aware of. It made my stay in Egypt more pleasant.
Excellent value.......2001-10-29
This is definitely one of the best phrase books out there. While living in Cairo I took it almost everywhere I went, using it a countless number of times each day. Its accuracy - in terms of Egypt's unique colloquial - is unrivalled by other phrase books I used while in the region. It has very few - if any - flaws and at under five dollars is of excellent value. Highly recommended.
The book was a nice book........2001-07-26
The "Egyptian Arabic, a rough guide phrasebook" was pretty good. It clearly tells you how to speak Arabic. Within minuets my friend and I were having a pointless conversation that envolved words taken from all over the book. The only thing wrong with the book was that it was hard to tell if you were saying the words corectly or not. It should really have better Pronunciation for the words. This book is a pocket-sized book so its easy to carry around. I'm only 13, but I recomend this book to anyone who wants to learn Arabic.
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