Giovanni Battista Belzoni
Date of Birth :
1772
Place of Birth :
Italy
Country :
Italy
Field of Expertise :
Egyptology
Educational background :
He educated hydraulic engineering and worked as a merchant trader.
Acheivements / Contributions :
- At the age of 40 Belzoni left England with his wife Sara.
- They went to Malta, where Belzoni learned from a Captain Ishmail that the Pasha of Egypt, a ex- Macedonian mercenary named Muhammed Ali, wanted a hydraulic engineer.
- Ali was very Western-minded, desiring modern information to develop his poverty-stricken country.
- Belzoni wrote of Cairo, "It was barbarous, really barbarous, and it relics so to this day."
-
When Belzoni lastly got a meeting with the Pasha, Ali was less than passionate about his plans for a new ox-driven water pump.
- But he did honor Belzoni a tiny government allowance which allowed him to live a while longer in Egypt.
source:
Giovanni Battista Belzoni
Bibliography :
Giovanni Battista Belzoni,
Fruits Of Enterprise Exhibited In The Adventures Of Belzoni In Egypt And Nubia (1843),
[Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the pyramids, temples, tombs, and excavations, in Egypt and Nubia].
