For literary enquiries please contact Donald Winchester at Watson Little. For all other enquiries please contact me directly using the form below.
I’ll do my best to reply quickly but I get quite a lot of messages these days and can’t always respond as swiftly as I’d like. Please bear with me – thanks!
Please note that I am no longer able to provide a critical appraisal of articles or other research or ideas that are sent to me – I don’t have enough time for my own research and I am sent far more requests like this than I could ever respond to, so in fairness to everyone I am simply refusing all such submissions. Sorry, and thanks for your understanding. This does not apply to peer review for publishers which remains an important part of my work.
Dr Chris Naunton 
Hi there Chris, I’m a student and writer from South Africa, I was wondering if you could clear up for me whether Egyptian cities were walled cities-similar to what we would see in Rome or Phoenicia- other sources tend to be very confusing in how they described the construction. Thanks
hi Martin, there are no hard, fast rules here and it’s probably not a good idea to generalise given how many settlelents of various sizes and kinds there must have been throughout Egyptian territory over the 3,000 years we tend to think the ancient civilisation lasted – but in general the answer I think is ‘no’ the cities were not walled. A few thoughts: 1) Perhaps the best preserved example of ancient Egyptian city is the capital of pharaoh Akhenaten at the site we now call Amarna (see http://www.amarnaproject.com/) and this had no one enclosure wall, perhaps because it was not felt necessary and as it would have restricted expansion. 2) Certain settlements did have walls e.g. the famous forts in Nubia during the Middle and New Kingdoms – the best example of which was that at Buhen. But these had a very particular function – essentially to guard the southern frontier against attack. 3) The larger temples were generally surrounded by substantial enclosure walls. These surrounded not only the cult buildings but other buildings including in some cases houses. Some of these enclosures later became occupied as towns when there was a need for settlements to be better defended e.g. the enclosure surrounding the mortuary temple of Ramesses III in western Thebes, which was occupied as a town for centuries; it’s modern name, ‘Medinet Habu’ means something like the ‘city of Habu’.
An excellent recent overview of the subject is, Snape, The Complete Cities of Ancient Egypt https://thamesandhudson.com/complete-cities-of-ancient-egypt-9780500051795
Hope this helps!
Correction to my previous note:
The third couch at rear [had] the lone white storage box with the cartouche of Tutankhamun on its top bed.
Also forgive my doubled periods and missing a closing parenthesis.
Respect… I’m Aleksandar from Belgrade, I watched your shows and I’m also a fan of the life of Alexander the Great. I saw that you are looking for a grave in Alexandria, Egypt. How sure are you that the tomb is not in Pella, Greece…the graves of his father and mother were found there…maybe it is realistic that the King of Greece will be buried right where you were born. Thank you..regards and all the best
Hi Aleksandar, Well, I can’t say I’m ‘sure’ the tomb of Alexander is in Egypt but just about all the sources we have suggest that’s where he was buried and that his body remained there – in Alexandria – for several centuries where it was visited by, among others, a number of Roman emperors. I tried to summarise the evidence in chapter 6 of my book on lost tombs (https://chrisnaunton.com/searching-for-the-lost-tombs-of-egypt/) and also in this talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AllWZ5UlQT8&t=987s
Hi Dr Chris, I have had a lifelong interest in Egyptology and specifically the Valley of the Kings, having visited Egypt in 2004. I recently found your SftLToE book in Waterstones by chance and have been enthralled reading it. So much so that I spent some time this afternoon listening to a couple of your lectures on YT, which were very interesting indeed.
I have been somewhat dismayed by the lack of news coming from the Valley of the Kings since the revolution of 2011 and after the recent pandemic. There used to be regular updates on the TMP, KV5 excavations and more, including an excellent news site set up by Kate Phizackerley (kv64.info if I remember correctly). Since then the only ‘news’ seems to be packaged up for maximum international coverage and to encourage sensationalism to boost tourism. So your lectures, books and comms are most refreshing.
Whilst I am also sceptical about Dr Reeves and the sketchy evidence for undiscovered additional chambers within KV62, there is clearly no chance that anyone could sanction even minor damage to the decorated north tomb wall in chamber J. But can I ask what is stopping someone (with funding and permission of course) from sinking a borehole from the surface and carefully placed to the north of the current extent of chamber J, and then using the core samples returned to check for the presence of a void, or fill at an appropriate depth? Or would such work be potentially too damaging due to the vibration created? Just wondered if it had been considered?
Keep up the good work! Colin
Dear Colin, Many thanks for your kind words, I’m delighted to know that you enjoyed my book and that it led you to some of my talks online, and here! On the question of how archaeologists might go about investigating the possibility of there being something beneath the ground to the north of the burial chamber in Tutankhamun’s tomb, I imagine that the Ministry of Antiquities’ preference would be to locate any new tombs / chambers via the original entrances, and they have been conducting excavations looking for such things. Moreover, the radar surveys carried out in the tomb seem to show conclusively that there are no hidden chambers – that seems to be the view of the Ministry anyway. These excavations are ongoing so… watch this space!