Abusir, the realm of Osiris, 2002, 256 p., ill., rel. -

The great story of the forgotten pyramids. At the centre of the world-famous pyramid field of the Menphite necropolis there lies a group of pyramids, temples, and tombs named after the nearby village of Abusir. Long over-shadowed by the more familiar pyramids at Giza and Saqqara, this area has nonetheless been the site, for the last 40 years, of an extensive operation to discover its past. This exciting new book - richly endowed with black-and-white historical photographs, colour plates of contemporary work, and informative illustrations - at last documents the uncovering by a delicated team of Czech archaeologists of a hitherto neglected wealth of ancient remains dating from the Old Kingdom to the late period. This is Abusir, realm of Osiris, God of the dead, and its story is one of both modern archaeology and tthe long-buried mysteries that it seeks to uncover. Dr Miroslav Verner of the Charles University in Prague has been leading the excavations in Abusir since 1976. Drawing on his own experience as well as the full range of historical material from early excavations, Dr Verner brings to life a world as distant in time as its uncovered remains are immediate and stricking. His work is both scholary and enterlaining, making the passage into this ancient underworld at once an intellectual exploration and a fascinating adventuure.