A Gift of Geology: Ancient Egyptian Landscapes and Monuments

REVIEW BY JPP Colin Reader is a geologist who has combined his professional knowledge with his passion for Egyptology to produce a fascinating geological history of the country. The title of his book derives from Herodotus’ assertion that the ancient Egyptian civilisation was ‘a gift of the river [Nile]’. Reader contends that this is only partly true. He says that it was the combination of several fortuitous geological events and processes that allowed the pharaonic civilisation to flourish. The book is hugely ambitious in its scope, covering the two billion years that shaped the country we see today. It begins with a brief introduction to the subject of geology and then traces t