Scholars and Adventurers in Egypt

Since ancient times, countless artists, scholars, adventurers, and archaeologists have traveled through the fascinating land of Egypt. By bringing back objects, images, and texts in their luggage, they contributed to the rediscovery of ancient Egypt. Among these enthusiasts, we should mention Jean-François Champollion, who succeeded in deciphering hieroglyphs in 1822, Mariette, who became director of Egyptian Antiquities in 1858 and then the first curator of the Cairo Museum in 1901; the painter David Roberts, famous for his mid-19th-century landscape watercolors; Howard Carter, who discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, and Jean-Yves Empereur and his recent underwater excavations in the port of Alexandria (1990s). Chapter by chapter, the book takes us from north to south, from the Delta to Nubia, following the course of the Nile. Passing through Cairo, Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, and Abu Simbel, the author takes us in the footsteps of the men and women who explored, drew, and photographed Egypt and its treasures.

255 pages in French.