The aim of the UEE is to provide access to excellent information on a broad range of topics on ancient Egypt for scholars across multiple disciplines, students of Egyptology, History and related fields, and at the same time meeting the enormous popular interest in ancient Egypt. For thirty years the Lexikon der Ägyptologie (LÄ, edited by Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto, and Wolfhart Westendorf), seven-volumes published between 1975 and 1992, has been the standard reference work in Egyptology. This great body of knowledge, written mostly in German, is still extremely useful for professionals in the field, even though it begins to show signs of age due to recent archaeological discoveries in Egypt and new insights or changed views. The development of research and scholarly discourse as well as the rapid developments in electronic publishing and multi-media use provides the present generation of scholars with the enticing opportunity to provide up to date, first rate information on ancient Egypt in an "open-access" environment.

The individual articles published in eScholarhip will also be accessible through the web site of the UEE (in development), which will be subscription-based and offer advanced search capabilities and attractive multi-media access. The UEE web site will provide search functionality in four languages (English, Arabic, German and French).

For project development information see: http://www.uee.ucla.edu