The Seventh Scroll

Name: The Seventh Scroll
Rating: 4.5 (8978 reviews)

by Wilbur Smith Book 2 in the Ancient Egyptian Series series.

First published 1995

Amazon

4.5(8,978)

In the modern era, archaeologists Duraid and Royan al Simma discover a coded scroll left by Taita that may reveal the burial place of Queen Lostris. Duraid is murdered before the clues can be fully interpreted. The modern investigation repeatedly interprets material described in River God, so the ancient story functions as an archaeological archive rather than a second historical timeline.

Royan joins English adventurer Nicholas Quenton-Harper in a search through Ethiopia for the tomb and its treasure. Rival expeditions, fraud and violence turn an archaeological puzzle into a contemporary pursuit rather than a novel set in ancient Egypt. Questions of ownership, excavation ethics and the international antiquities trade sit beside the codes and traps that Taita designed to protect the burial.