Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations, in Egypt and Nubia
The Italian adventurer Giovanni Belzoni (1778–1823) is one of the most colourful and notorious figures in Egyptology. After the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt, European interest in the country, and especially in its antiquities, led to a demand for artifacts, the larger the better. Belzoni happened to be pursuing his two careers, as circus strong-man and hydraulic engineer, in Egypt in 1815, when he was asked to organise the transport of a 7-ton statue of Ramesses II from Thebes to the British Museum. After the success of this enterprise, he turned his attention to the discovery of other antiquities, though using destructive techniques which were deplored by serious contemporary scholars. His narrative of his adventures was enormously popular at the time, and remains readable and entertaining today. This reissue omits the plates from the original edition, which are too large to be reproduced satisfactorily in this format.
Product details
July 2010Paperback
9781108016759
564 pages
244 × 170 × 29 mm
0.75kg
2 b/w illus. 1 map
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Preface to the second edition
- First journey
- Second journey
- Third journey
- Journey to the Red Sea
- Account of the taking of the obelisk from the island of Philoe to Alexandria
- Journey to the oasis of Ammon
- Appendix.