THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF THE NILE

The subtitle suggests the purpose of this book:-- ""The Doomed Monuments of Nubia"" but while there's a lot of wonderful history attached to anthropologist Walter Fairservis' geographical field trip, but quite frankly little of it gets into his Ancient Kingdoms the Nile. Why this is so is hard to say; perhaps it's our research assistant's museum outlook and scholarly or perhaps his study of Nubia in the Nile Valley and the surrounding lands of Egypt and Sudan almost chokes itself to death while reciting so many facts, desert fancies and temple listings sans one real breather or colorful stop-over. Actually the liveliest stretch of the journey is the one which throws in a plea to save the great Nubian monuments; all of these may meet death when the UAR's new Sadd-el-Aali dam upon completion spews out a watery inundation. Here author Fairservis rises into the sunlight and glowingly depicts the wonders of Abu Simbel, the colossal sanctuary of Path and the 66 of Ramses the splendid.