A collection of rare texts from Ancient Egypt, newly translated for this essential edition

The fascination that Ancient Egypt holds in our minds has many sources, but at the heart of it lie hieroglyphics. This extraordinary writing system was for many years seen as the ultimate puzzle, before finally being cracked in the 1820s. Preserved carved in stone or inked on papyri, hieroglyphic writings give a unique insight into an awe-inspiring but also deeply mysterious culture.

For this collection, Toby Wilkinson has translated a rich selection of pieces, ranging from accounts of battles to hymns to stories to royal proclamations. Entertaining and revelatory, this is an essential resource for studying one of humankind's great civilizations.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Toby Wilkinson is a Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge. He has written a number of major books on Ancient Egypt, most recently The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt (Bloomsbury, UK; Random House, US)which won the Hessell-Tiltman prize. He has excavated at the Egyptian sites of Buto and Memphis.