There is the taste of the beer and wine, his description of the 'black earth' of the river valley, the grandiose monuments, horrific desert chariot battles, gods and goddesses, barbarism, unusual sexual customs, Akhnaton's new city, and the House of the Dead. The author really brings ancient Egypt to life, more so than any other novel I've read. (She was the victim of a shipwreck.) And then there is the beautiful, mature saloon-owner whom he comes to love in his later life. His greatest, life-long love was a Cretan girl whom he met in Babylon. His first love leads to the ruination of his family. Sinuhe plays an integral part in the proceedings.īut his own story is quite interesting as well.

We get to meet Horemheb, the general who succeeded him, and also, surprisingly, King Tut, who was pharaoh for only a short period of time, and who died at the age of eighteen. It is then back to Egypt, where he shares with us the Akhnaton adventure, and the political intrigue that surrounded his reign. All of these places are fascinating, and the author gives us loads of detail. With him we visit bizarre Syria, opulent and decadent Babylon, austere and fierce Hatti, the land of the Hittites, and finally artistic Crete, with its own share of barbaric, cruel customs. His skill and luck bring him into contact with the most powerful men of Egypt, one of whom asks him to travel through the nations of the known world, in order to determine their strengths and weaknesses. The story is narrated by Sinuhe, a doctor, trained in the temple of Ammon, the predominant Egyptian god of his youth.

That fascinating bit of ancient history is the centerpiece of this great novel by Mika Waltari, but the novel is also much, much, more than this, and in fact gives us a dazzling, up-close view of the entire ancient world as it existed thirty-three centuries ago. Naturally, there was a great deal of resistance to Akhnaton's new decree, and the resulting chaos brought about his downfall, and almost spelled the doom of mighty Egypt. He was a god who cherished even the lowly-born. He was a god who believed all men were created equal, even servants, and slaves, and people with black skin. About 1300 years before the birth of Christ, in what was then the greatest civilization in history, the new Pharaoh, Akhnaton, decreed that all gods were false, except for one, Aton.

The egyptian novel by mika waltari