The Allure of S omething about ancient Egypt attracts almost everyone—the art is spectacular, the hieroglyphs mysterious, the pyramids aweinspiring, and we even have the mummies of the pharaohs to contemplate. For 2,000 years the world has been smitten with Egyptomania. The Greeks revered the ancient Egyptians; the Victorians deciphered them. Napoleon created a fabulous dinner service for Josephine with dozens of hand painted Egyptian scenes. Cigar box labels of the 1890s regularly sported pharaohs and ANCIENT EGYPT EGYPT — by Bob Brier queens to help sell the stogies. The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 escalated the mania—and today we have movie theaters that look like Egyptian temples, and plenty of Egypt-themed films to screen inside them. If you feel the allure of ancient Egypt and appreciate the achievements of the Egyptians, you aren’t alone. So do we. And in this special issue of Archaeology we present an anthology of our best articles on the land of the Nile. “Napoleon in Egypt” chronicles the birth of modern Egyptology, a story almost as fascinating as the discoveries themARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE —