Giovanni Battista Belzoni

Giovanni Battista Belzoni (born November 15, 1778 – died December 3, 1823) was an Italian explorer, engineer, and amateur archeologist, often regarded as one of the first Egyptologists. His discoveries in the tomb of Seti I, temple at Karnak, and the pyramid of Khafre, made a fundamental contribution to our knowledge of ancient Egypt.

Life

Giovanni Belzoni was born at Padua, Republic of Venice (today’s Italy), in a family of thirteen children of a local barber. His family was originally from Rome, and he spent his adolescence mostly there. At the age of 16 he entered monastic order and intended spending his life as a monk, but in 1798 the occupation of the city by the Napoleon’s troops drove him from Rome and changed his proposed career. He went back to Padua, where he studied hydraulics, after which he left in 1800 for the Netherlands.

In 1803 Belzoni moved to England, where he married an Englishwoman, Sarah Bane (or Banne). The life for a newly wedded couple was rather harsh, as they had to work in a circus to provide for food. Belzoni stood 6 foot 7 inches tall, broad in proportion, and his wife was of equally generous build. They performed at fairs and on the streets of London, as a strongman and a strongwoman. His nickname was “The Great Belzoni.” This career lasted for ten years.

After leaving circus in 1812 Belzoni traveled to Malta, where he met an officer of Mohammed Ali Pasha, who invited Belzoni to Egypt. Belzoni wanted to show Pasha a hydraulic machine of his own invention for raising the waters of the Nile. Though the experiment with this engine was somewhat successful, Pasha did not like the invention and abandoned the project.

In Egypt Belzoni met and joined British Consul General named Henry Salt, who worked on removing the Egyptian treasures to the British Museum. In the next several years Belzoni participated in removing the stone head of Ramses II and excavating at the temple Edfu, Philae, and Elephantine. He also made his famous discovery of the mummy of Psammethis.

In 1818 Belzoni entered the pyramid of Khafre at Giza, being the first explorer in modern times to be able to find the hidden entrance and actually enter the inner chambers. In the same year he led some excavations on the Red Sea and was able to identify the ruined city of Berenice.

After returning to Great Britain in 1819, he published a book entitled Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries Within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia (1820). The book received great publicity and made Belzoni famous. The work is regarded being the first English research in Egyptology. In the next couple of years (1820-21) Belzoni held several exhibitions, displaying many of his findings. The exhibition was held at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London. In 1822 Belzoni showed his model in Paris, France.

In 1823 Belzoni set out for West Africa, intending to travel to Timbuktu. Having been refused permission to pass through Morocco, he chose the Guinea Coast route. He reached Benin, but caught dysentery at a village called Gwato. He died there and was buried under an Arasma tree in Gwato.

Work

The 'Young Memnon', aka Rameses II, at the British Museum.

Belzoni left significant mark on the history of explorations in Egypt. In early 1810s he learned from orientalist, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, about the Abu Simbel temple in Nubia and the statue of Ramesses II, known as the "Young Memnon" in Luxor. Belzoni first went to Luxor, and with the help from the British Consul in Egypt Henry Salt, unearthed and removed with great skill the colossal bust of the “Young Memnon" and shipped it to England. This in no means was an easy job, as the statue measured 9 feet high and Belzoni was equipped only with wooden poles and locally-made ropes. Belzoni somehow managed to transport the statue to the Nile, where a boat was waiting bound for England. Many agree that Belzoni probably saved the statue from a certain destruction, as French already eyed the statue for some time and had drilled the hole in it (in the right shoulder) to remove it with dynamite. The statue is still on prominent display at the British Museum.

Belzoni then went to Nubia and started to clear the entrance to the great temple at Abu Simbel of sand, but was unable to finish the task due to the lack of workers. He then made some excavations at Karnak, and opened up the sepulcher of Seti I (still sometimes known as "Belzoni's Tomb”). He collected there several sculptures of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet, made of black granite, and sent them to England. He also pushed his investigations into the great temple of Edfu, and has visited Elephantine and Philae. At the Island of Philae he removed several pieces from the temple of Isis.

After sending the first shipment to England, Henry Salt was so pleased with Belzoni that he offered him the sponsorship for the second expedition to Nubia. By then, however, Belzoni had already made himself lot of enemies, especially in the French and Italian consuls, who collected artifacts themselves. They did not like Belzoni take the finest art in front of their eyes, and thus sabotaged Belzoni’s expedition. They sent their men to follow Belzoni and blacken his reputation wherever he went. Belzoni thus decided not to go to Karnak, but to stay at the Valley of the Kings, where however he totally ruined his reputation as an archeologist.

Belzoni first stumbled into the tomb of King Ay, where he removed the bottom part of the sarcophagus, attributed to Ramesses III (now in the Louvre Museum in Paris). He later found the lid and took it to England. He made a hole in the decorated, ancient wall to be able to pass through, destroying such a big piece of original artwork.

Belzoni later found the tomb of Prince Mentuhirkhopeshef of the 20th Dynasty, and the tomb of Ramesses I, the first king of the 19th Dynasty. As he described it in his diary, the paintings in the tombs were so well preserved as they had been made the previous day. Unfortunately, the water flood made significant damages to the tomb, as the water penetrated the entrance left after Belzoni’s departure.

Belzoni was the first to penetrate into the Khafre’s pyramid, the second pyramid of Giza, and to see the sarcophagus, and he was the first European in modern times to visit the oasis of Bahariya, which he supposed to be that of Siwa. He also identified the ruins of Berenice on the Red Sea.

Legacy

Giovanni Belzoni was not a trained scholar, but an amateur archeologist motivated by the thrill of a treasure hunt and quick money received from selling the artifacts to collectors. His excavations were conducted totally unprofessionally and sometimes resulted in the destruction of the original artwork. Belzoni was often maligned as a tomb robber. However, he worked at the time when archeology was still an amateur science, and when removal of the artwork for their exhibition in the museums was considered “preferable.” From the perspective of the modern archeology, such practice might be regarded as looting, since removing of artwork from their original place damages the integrity of a historic site, denies archaeologists important information that could be learnt from original setting, and robs local people of their heritage. Belzoni can be however regarded as one of the pioneers of Egyptology, whose work was the overtire to the later explorations of Egypt.

Publications

• Belzoni, Giovanni B. 1999. Adventures of Belzoni. Reprint Services Corp. ISBN 0781203422
• Belzoni, Giovanni B. 2001 (original work published in 1820). Belzoni's Travels: Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries in Egypt and Nubia. British Museum Press. ISBN 0714119407

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

• Beese, Karl. n.d. Giovanni Battista Belzoni. Retrieved on January 31, 2007, <http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/abcde/belzoni_giovanni.html>
• Mayes, Stanley. 2006. The Great Belzoni: The Circus Strongman Who Discovered Egypt's Ancient Treasures. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 1845113330
• McLeish, John L. 1916. Belzoni's discoveries. Freemason Pub. Co
• Parsons, Marie. Giovanni Belzoni: Circus Giant and Collector of Egyptian Antiquities. Retrieved on January 31, 2007, <http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/belzoni.htm>

External links

• Biography of Giovanni Battista Belzoni - Catholic Encyclopedia article
• Giovanni Battista Belzoni – Short biography
• Egyptology – Good resource on the study of ancient Egypt
• Khafre’s Pyramid – About the Great Pyramid of Khafre at Giza
• Ancient Egypt – About the Ancient Egypt on the British Museum website
• Ancient Egypt at British Museum – Museum’s collection of Egyptian material
• Temple of Ramses II – About Ramses II, images and resources
• Removal of the “Young Memnon” – Belzoni’s article and sketches on how he removed the statue of “Young Memnon”

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