Like the French Description de l'Égypte, published forty years previously, the work is still regularly consulted by Egyptologists today.

[1] It records the scientific documentation obtained by Lepsius's Prussian expedition to Egypt and Nubia from 1842–1845 in order to gather knowledge about the local monuments of ancient Egyptian civilization.

This expedition was modelled after the earlier Napoléonic mission, and consisted of surveyors, draftsmen, and other specialists.

It contains highly accurate maps for its time, as well as nearly 900 plates of monuments and copies of inscriptions.

Abtheilung I Topographie und Architektur (Section I: Topography And Architecture) Abtheilung II Denkmäler des Alten Reichs (Section II: Monuments Of The Old Kingdom) Abtheilung III Denkmäler des Neuen Reichs (Section III: Monuments Of The New Kingdom) Abtheilung IV Denkmäler aus der Zeit der griechischen und römischen Herrschaft (Section IV Monuments from the Period of Greek and Roman Domination) Abtheilung V Äthiopische Denkmäler (Section V Ethiopian Monuments) Abtheilung VI Inschriften mit Ausschluss der Hieroglyphischen (Section VI: Inscriptions Excluding Hieroglyphic Sheets)