The Egyptian is the first, and the most successful, of Waltari's great historical novels. It is set in a fascinating period of Egyptian history, mostly during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten of the 18th Dynasty, whom some have claimed to be the first monotheistic ruler in the world.
The hero of the novel is not Akhenaten, however, but the fictional character Sinuhe, the royal physician, who tells the story in exile after Akhenaten's fall and death. Apart from incidents in Egypt, the novel charts Sinuhe's travels in then-Egyptian dominated Syria (Levant), Mitanni, Babylon, Minoan Crete, and among the Hittites.