Smarthistory Guide to Ancient Egyptian Art

A Metropolitan Museum educator resource on Egyptian art, with background texts, object descriptions, and images spanning sculpture, painting, and architecture across three millennia. A rich visual introduction to how and why the Egyptians made art.

Philippe de Montebello and Kent Lydecker

Nina Davies' classic plates of Egyptian tomb and temple paintings, selected, copied, and described with editorial help from Alan Gardiner. A landmark reference on color, scene, and style in pharaonic art.

Nina M Davies

A focused study of the artistic upheaval under Akhenaten, when traditional canons gave way to the naturalistic Amarna style. Explains the worldview, materials, and conventions behind Egyptian art.

Riana McArthur

How the Egyptians quarried, moved, and raised the colossal stone of temples and pyramids without modern machinery. Drawn from the Karnak record, it details the engineering behind their architectural feats.

Digital Karnak

Traces the development of the tomb from predynastic pit graves through mastabas to the great pyramid complexes of the Old Kingdom. Uses the Abusir complex to explain the meaning behind each element.

Ancient Egypt and Archaeology