Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations, in Egypt and Nubia
And of a Journey to the Coast of the Red Sea, in Search of the Ancient Berenice, and of Another to the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon

Published in 1821, these adventures of an Italian strong-man turned hunter of Egyptian antiquities remain readable and entertaining today.

Giovanni Battista Belzoni (Author)

9781108016759, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 July 2010

564 pages, 2 b/w illus. 1 map
24.4 x 17 x 2.9 cm, 0.75 kg

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Archaeology by period / region [HDD]