The Red Sea Scrolls

Pierre Tallet, born in 1966, is an alumnus of the Ecole normale Superieure and former member of the French institute of Archaeology in Cairo. He is now the chair of Egyptology at the Sorbonne. Tallet served as the President of the French Society of Egyptology from 2009 to 2021, and is also a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. Since 2001, he has directed or co-directed several archaeological projects in Egypt and Sudan, in particular on the Red Sea sea shore where the old pharaonic harbours of Ayn Soukhna and Wadi el-Jarf were successively identified. He still leads an annual archaeological campaign on the latter site, where the most ancient papyri known to date were found between 2013 and 2018.Mark Lehner has been conducting fieldwork at Giza since the mid-1970s. He ispresident of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), which is excavating thelarge settlement of the pyramid builders. Among his publications is the bestsellingand award-winning The Complete Pyramids, published by Thames & Hudson.

The inside story, told by the archaeological detectives themselves, of the extraordinary discovery of the world's oldest papyri - revealing how King Khufu's men built the Great Pyramid at Giza.

Pierre Tallet's discovery of the Red Sea Scrolls - the world's oldest surviving written documents - in 2013 was one of the most remarkable moments in the history of Egyptology. These papyri, written some 4,600 years ago, combined with Mark Lehner's research and theories, change what we thought we knew about the building of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Here, for the first time, Tallet and Lehner together give us the definitive account of this astounding discovery.

The story begins with Tallet's hunt for hieroglyphic rock inscriptions in the Sinai Peninsula, leading up to the discovery of the papyri - the diary of Inspector Merer, who oversaw workers in the reign of Pharaoh Khufu - in Wadi el-Jarf, the site of an ancient harbour on the Red Sea. The translation of the papyri reveals for the first time exactly how the stones of the Great Pyramid were transported to Giza. Combined with Lehner's excavations of the recently unearthed harbour, the Red Sea Papyri have greatly advanced our understanding of how the ancient Egyptians were able to build monuments that survive to this day.

Tallet and Lehner narrate this thrilling discovery and explore how the building of the pyramids helped create a unified state, propelling Egyptian civilization forward. This lavishly illustrated book captures the excitement and significance of these seminal findings, conveying above all how astonishing it is to discover a contemporary eye-witness testimony to the creation of the only remaining Wonder of the Ancient World.

With over 200 illustrations

Prologue
Introduction

Part I
Discoveries in the Desert
The Red Sea

Part II
Copper
Sneferu and Khufu and their Pyramid
From Khufu to Khafra on the Red Sea Coast and at Giza
Finding the Papyri
The Challenges of Translating the Papyri
What the Papyri Tell Us

Part IV
How Merer and his Team Transported Stone to Giza
From the Red Sea to the Nile Delta: A Year in the Life of Merer and his Men
From Worker's Village to Port City
Overseer of the Ro She Ankh-haf

Part V
Feeding the Workers
How They Could Have Raised the Stone
How the Pyramids Created a Unified State

Conclusion: Future Discoveries on the Red Sea Coast?
Appendix : Translation of Papyri