The art of ancient Egypt that has been handed down to us bears no names of its creators, and yet we value the creations of these unknown masters no less than the works of later centuries, such as statues by Michelangelo or the paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. The present volume introduces a series of such masterpieces, ranging from the Old Kingdom, or the 3rd millennium B.C., to the Late Period in the 9th century B.C. The works in question are sculptures, reliefs, sarcophagi, murals, masks, and decorative items, most of them now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but some occupying places of honor as part of the world cultural heritage in museums such as the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London, the Egyptian Museum in Berlin and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Featured works include: Seated statue of King Djoser, wood relief of Hesire on a dining table, the statue of a scribe made of various materials, funerary relief of Aschait, a Sphinx of Sesostris III, a robed statue of Cherihotep, reliefs from the Temple at Carnac, sarcophagus of Queen Hatshepsut, murals from Thebes, seated figure of the goddess Sachmet, precious statue of Queen Teje, head of Akhenaten (Amenophis IV), Queen Nefertiti, golden mask of Tutankhamun, Ramses II from Abu Simbel, Horus-falcon made of granite, stone relief on the temple ambulatory at Edfu. Each book in TASCHEN's "Basic Genre" series features: a detailed introduction with approximately 35 photographs, plus a timeline of the most important events (political, cultural, scientific, etc.) that took place during the time period; and a selection of the most important works of the epoch; each is presented on a 2-page spread with a full-page image and, on the facing page, a description/interpretation of the work and brief biography of the artist as well as additional information such as a reference work, portrait of the artist, and/or citations