'' by
Jan Adam Kruseman, 1824 In 1812 he left England and after a tour of performances in Spain, Portugal and
Sicily, he went to
Malta in 1815 where he met
Ismael Gibraltar, an emissary of
Muhammad Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, who at the time was undertaking a programme of agrarian land reclamation and important irrigation works. His excavation and removal of the Younger Memnon and other stones during this expedition was explicitly authorized by a
firman from Muhammad Ali himself Before setting off for Cairo, Belzoni seized the opportunity to further his archaeological investigations in the area. He visited the
Temple of Edfu and unsuccessfully attempted to gain entry to the Great Temple at
Abu Simbel, which had been discovered by Burckhardt a few years earlier. Although Burckhardt had discovered the site, he was unable to enter the temple as only the tops of the four colossal heads of Ramesses II, each 20 metres high, were visible above the sand. After seven days of unsuccessful attempts, Belzoni set off for the
Elephantine Island and
Philae, where he took possession of an inscribed obelisk in perfect condition on behalf of the British Consulate. Before setting off with the Colossus, he returned to Luxor, where he conducted excavations at Karnak and explored the Valley of the Kings on the opposite bank of the Nile. It was here that he discovered his first tomb, which was later revealed to be that of the pharaoh
Ay (
WV23).
Second expedition (20 February 1817 - 21 December 1817) Belzoni arrived in Cairo with the Colossus on 15 December 1816. In February 1817, he set out again for Karnak on Salt's behalf. His companions were Salt's secretary, Henry Beechey; two naval officers, Captains Irby and Mangles; an interpreter,
Giovanni Anastasi; and a
janissary, Giovanni Finati. In Karnak he unearthed a significant number of artefacts, including the sarcophagus of Pharaoh
Ramesses III, a massive, highly decorated relic carved from red granite/quartzite. He also found a
limestone statue of Queen
Ahmose-Meritamun. He then returned to Abu Simbel, where, after 22 days of labour, he finally succeeded in clearing the entrance to the Great Temple of sand, uncovering its façade (2 August 1817). Belzoni was the first person in modern times to enter the temple. However, the discovery was disappointing because the temple had been looted centuries before. Belzoni only found a few artefacts, most importantly a falcon-headed sphinx, but he described the temple as having magnificent, pristine decorations. He then returned to Thebes to conduct excavations in the Valley of the Kings. On 18 October 1817, he discovered the
tomb of Seti I, the father of Ramesses II. Considered one of the most beautiful and intact tombs in Egypt, it is adorned with magnificent bas-reliefs and polychrome frescoes. Belzoni mapped the tomb, took a thorough inventory of its contents and created graphic casts of the bas-reliefs. The splendid, translucent alabaster
sarcophagus of the pharaoh was purchased by the architect
John Soane after Belzoni's death in 1824 and installed in the 'crypt' of his London
house-museum, where it remains today. Belzoni carried out thorough excavations in the Valley, discovering and clearing a number of tombs, including those of
Mentuherkhepeshef and
Ramesses I. By the end of his expedition, he had unearthed a total of eight tombs. According to
Howard Carter "this was the first occasion on which excavations on a large scale had ever been made in The Valley, and we must give Belzoni full credit for the manner in which they were carried out." the following year. The book was accompanied by a volume of
Plates illustrative of the Researches and Operations of Belzoni in Egypt and Nubia, realized by the Italian engraver
Agostino Aglio based on drawings by Belzoni and his wife. Carter describes Belzoni's account of his experiences in Egypt as "one of the most fascinating books in the whole of Egyptian literature". In 1822 Belzoni showed his model in
Paris. Belzoni's discoveries made him famous in Europe. He frequented such illustrious personalities as
Walter Scott and
Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, to whom he dedicated a dissertation on the hieroglyphs on the tomb of Sety I (1821). In April 1822, he departed for
Russia, where he was welcomed with great honour in Saint Petersburg by Emperor
Alexander I, who presented him with a ring adorned with a
topaz.
Expedition to West Africa and death In 1823 Belzoni accepted an offer from the
African Association of London to lead an expedition to explore
West Africa, specifically aiming to find the source of the
Niger River and visit the legendary city of
Timbuktu. Niger was virtually unknown to Europeans and had only been reached for the first time a few years earlier by the renowned Scottish explorer,
Mungo Park. Park had attempted to reach Timbuktu, but he died on the Niger River before he could visit it. Having been refused permission to pass through
Morocco, Belzoni chose the
Gulf of Guinea coastal route. He reached the
Kingdom of Benin, but was seized with
dysentery at a village called Gwato (now
Ughoton), and died there. He was buried under the branches of an locust tree on the outskirts of the village. According to the renowned traveller
Richard Francis Burton, who visited Benin in 1863-1864, Belzoni was murdered and robbed. A local chieftain informed Burton that the townspeople still possessed many of Belzoni's papers. Burton tried to retrieve them, but without success. In 1829 Belzoni's widow published his drawings of the
royal tombs at Thebes. ==Commemoration==