Ive been holding for a while now! At some point in time there was discussion that it was going to be a fast follower to the North Africa book. Any updates? Is it no longer upcoming? Something post Ars Magica 6? 
Curious as I was very much looking forward to this...
Ars 6th is just a thing we talk about, in this case pushed along by the discussion of the Gumshoe port. It's not a thing.
I don't recall Egypt being announced as closely following. I did say that the two came out of a single drafting process which could have given that impression I suppose.
Atlas announced Egypt as upcoming in an informal sort of way. Generally they play their cards closer specifically to avoid these sorts of situations. 8).
I'm not involved in production, but I've not heard of any delays. I just thought I'd respond to stop speculation and rumour getting too far ahead of itself.
Sure, take all the fun out of things!
The real joke is that he thinks that'll stop us.
Alas - so no further info gleaned! ! 
I have no connection to this book at all, so I'm completely free to speculate!
I suspect this book is quite a challenge. There's the early, very local Egypt period to deal with, the later Upper and Lower Egypt period, the even later Greek and Roman syncretization periods, the early Christian period/late Empire, early Islam and the more current situation. Each historic period has its own Faerie/pagan god issues, demons, later the Christian and Muslim Dominion, and magic throughout, including ancient, less ancient, classical, and more recent periods. Sounds like quite a club sandwich.
plus divine. The first (documented) instance of monotheism was the city of Heliopolis, where Aton was worshiped as a monotheistic deity, introduced and directed by Pharaoh Akhenaten around 1353 BC.
Not sure why it would pay anything more than lip service to pre 800 AD or so. Much like the other geographical books, I didn't think it was relevant to cover playing magi pre-order of hermes or really pre-1100 or so. Perhaps I misunderstood the scope... is it truly allowing you to play magi throughout Egypt's history?
It wouldn't have to if it were to reference that history in the same way the Theban book does, as an example. That and the order is not predominant in that area, and whatever is there is likely to use some Egytian based book of the dead style magic (the Egyptian sacred text, not the Lovecraftian elder gods version) than Hermetic magic theory. And how many parts does the soul have in this magic system? Ba and Ka or does it include Shuet Ib and Ren? Is there an Akh?
The weight of history should have quite an impact on local mythic geography in the present. Even if the material is brief, which one would expect, there are layers of history, with lingering local regios, ruins, cults, creatures, and so on. There are also the assorted cultural groups to deal with, where Arab culture mixes with Egyptian, Ethiopian, Sudanese (maybe), and various minority groups including Copts, Jews, and I don't know who, and quite possibly remnant Atenists or other lost and forgotten groups.
As for why, different groups and players will have different interests. I know little about Egyptian history after the arrival of Islam, but have quite a bit more interest in Egypt up to then.
I could be quite wrong - just speculating!
It'll be interesting because I honestly think it will be the first game to actually focus on Egypt during that time period. You mostly have RPGs today dealing with Ancient Egypt, sometimes classical Egypt, a bunch of Modern Egypt... but I dont find another Medieval Egypt!
Being Coptic is a shameless narcissistic factor too but i'll skim over that.
The Egypt book is still happening, and it does focus on Egypt (and lands south along the Nile) in 1220. Ancient Egypt obviously has an impact; there are those honking great pyramids sitting there, for a start. However, this is a book about the medieval country, and what Egyptians in 1220 believed about their past, which isn't quite the same as what we now think is true.
(We did toy with the idea of “This isn’t your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandfather’s Egypt!" as cover text.)
I can see why you decided not to, but I will say, I would have loved it!
On the other hand I would have to assume that even the parts you decide not to include take time to go through...
This would seem to imply that ancient Egyptian magic wasn't as constrained as Hermetic as to the Limit of the Soul. OTOH, it could just be a fairly comprehensive breakdown of Mentem magics too.
I can see pyramids as a way of granting the mystery of the Living Ghost to their occupants. It would certainly explain all the grave goods, and Ars Magica has already pretty much equated 'godhood' with gaining a Might Score.
One of the options for becoming an immortal with Might is apotheosis, but that doesn't mean every other method of becoming immortal is suddenly apotheosis. I genuinely think "being an experienced practitioner of the Hermetic Arts" is more representative of basic godhood than any Might Score or odd metaphysical state of being.
That is the most interesting topic I was hoping to read about. This interest came about a few years ago as I was browsing amazon and happened upon this:
aucpress.com/p-3692-coptic-i ... 81250.aspx
I found a very.. real and down to earth picture of minor and major issues at the time. Most of the literature around that era is a like a narrative of more significant events... So naturally I'm really interested in how you guys are going to describe "Life in 1220 Egypt" 
But it is!!! 
Don't you just love relevant historical source material? 