I was trying to decide which of the books on this year's Goodreads Non-fiction list I wanted to vote for when I came across Kathleen Sheppard's Women In The Valley Of The Kings (#1,280) just in time to download before leaving for Egypt.
It's about the work done by women to preserve the finds of the male archaeologists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before the men blasted their finds to smithereens and moved on in search of more treasure in many cases. The women were the recorders of relics, tomb paintings and scrolls in the days prior to color photography. They were also the ones to fund the initial collections outside of Egypt for the benefit of the public, rather than allowing them to be lost to private collectors. It's a fascinating story.
To look at the sites today, and read the tags mounted in various museums, you would never know that women were instrumental in ensuring that you are able to see those very items for yourself. Their presence has been virtually erased in the pursuit of Egyptian history.
Yet Ms. Sheppard's descriptions are so vivid that I was able to picture Lady Lucie Duff Gordon awaking in French House in 1864 and looking across the Nile at Luxor towards the Valley of the Kings as I stood there myself. Layer upon layer of awe-inspiring history...
This book really added to our visit to Egypt with a new perspective. Right book at the Right time in the Right place!
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