Celebrated as queen, politician, and lover, Cleopatra remains an object of fascination more than 2,000 years after her death. In this beautifully illustrated new study, Sally-Ann Ashton deconstructs the image of Cleopatra to uncover the complex historical figure behind the myth.

Incorporating Ashton’s findings from her own recent survey of a temple of Cleopatra in Egypt, this book is the first to consider Cleopatra from a wholly Egyptian perspective. Drawing on literary, archaeological, and art historical evidence, Ashton paints an intimate and compelling portrait of the most famous Queen of Egypt.