Egypt
- Book Review: City Of The Sharp-nosed Fish
The Periscope Post (Review by Philip Womack) This time it’s a star turn for Peter Parson’s City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish: Greek Lives in Roman Egypt (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007). This charming, entertaining and informative book is not only easy...
- Oxford University Wants Help Decoding Egyptian Papyri
BBC News Oxford University is asking for help deciphering ancient Greek texts written on fragments of papyrus found in Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of images have gone on display on a website which encourages armchair archaeologists to help catalogue...
- Tourism: Alexandria's Efforts To Lure Visitors
Earth Times Alexandria, Egypt - Just mention Alexandria and the name city rekindles the Pharoh era when the city was the location of a lighthouse that was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Library of Alexandria was the biggest at that...
- Oxyrhynchus - The Dustbin Of History
Guardian Unlimited (Khaled Diab) Our collective memory of the past is mostly confined to grand figures and epic events, while the vast majority of humanity ends up in the wastelands of oblivion. Thanks to nearly half a million papyrus fragments uncovered...
- Alexandria Quartet 50th Anniversary Celebrations
Egypt Daily Star News Generations of writers have been inspired by the multi-cultural, outward-looking city of Alexandria. In recent history, the most famous literary work about Alexandria by a non-Egyptian author is Lawrence Durrell’s “Justine,”...
Egypt
Book review: The City of the Sharp-nosed Fish
http://www.newstatesman.com/200704230045
Another review of City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish: Greek lives in Roman Egypt by Peter Parsons Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 320pp, ISBN 0297645889. Review by William Dalrymple.
"Much of the excitement of Parsons's book derives from the astonishingly contemporary feel of much of the material. A little boy, Theon, writes to his parents: "If you don't take me with you to Alexandria, I won't eat, I won't drink, so there." A correspondent named Akulas writing from cosmopolitan Alexandria admits he is missing his puppy, Soteris, and worries about her "since she now spends time by herself in the country". There is gossip about politicians consorting with rent boys, complaints about tax and death duties, even some muttered anxieties about the growing influence of Alexandria's Jewish lobby. And then there are the horribly contemporary religious fanatics, running around Egyptian city centres trying to lynch and assassinate writers and freethinkers, and to destroy idols and temples - though, in the fifth century, these fanatics were not Islamists, but early Coptic saints like St Cyril and his monks, 2that black-robed tribe who eat more than elephants, sweeping across the country like a river in spate ravaging the temples'.
See the above page for the rest of this comprehensive review.
See the above page for the rest of this comprehensive review.
- Book Review: City Of The Sharp-nosed Fish
The Periscope Post (Review by Philip Womack) This time it’s a star turn for Peter Parson’s City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish: Greek Lives in Roman Egypt (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007). This charming, entertaining and informative book is not only easy...
- Oxford University Wants Help Decoding Egyptian Papyri
BBC News Oxford University is asking for help deciphering ancient Greek texts written on fragments of papyrus found in Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of images have gone on display on a website which encourages armchair archaeologists to help catalogue...
- Tourism: Alexandria's Efforts To Lure Visitors
Earth Times Alexandria, Egypt - Just mention Alexandria and the name city rekindles the Pharoh era when the city was the location of a lighthouse that was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Library of Alexandria was the biggest at that...
- Oxyrhynchus - The Dustbin Of History
Guardian Unlimited (Khaled Diab) Our collective memory of the past is mostly confined to grand figures and epic events, while the vast majority of humanity ends up in the wastelands of oblivion. Thanks to nearly half a million papyrus fragments uncovered...
- Alexandria Quartet 50th Anniversary Celebrations
Egypt Daily Star News Generations of writers have been inspired by the multi-cultural, outward-looking city of Alexandria. In recent history, the most famous literary work about Alexandria by a non-Egyptian author is Lawrence Durrell’s “Justine,”...