Some 4,000 years ago, the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom began to build gigantic monuments to themselves in Giza, along the Nile River. Hawass—secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people—has painstakingly put together the story of these immense structures and the people who built them. Using the latest archeological insight and stitching the tale together with his brief fictionalized forays into the past, Hawass explores the interwoven family, clan and societal organizations that made up ancient Egyptian culture. He writes that the pharaohs, initially worshippers of the sun and eventually made sun gods themselves, began constructing these giant tombs as soon as they ascended to the throne. Hawass imagines Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid, finding comfort in thinking that "[h]is pyramid was rising rapidly, reaching to the sky and ensuring his eternal life as a god...." Throughout, Hawass weaves accounts of the ancient Egyptians with current excavations of the ruins. For general readers with no abiding interest in ancient Egypt, this is tough sledding at times. Without much narrative punch, Hawass writes seemingly endless strings of information in lackluster prose. But for Egyptophiles, this will be must reading. 8 pages of color photos. (Aug.)

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