Giambattista Belzoni Biography

Dromo's Den

BELZONI, Giambattista (1778-1823). An Italian explorer and archeologist. He was born in Padua and was educated in Rome for the priesthood; but, having a natural inclination for mechanics, and especially hydraulics, he abandoned his theological studies and returned to Padua when Rome was occupied by the French troops. He went to Holland in 1800 and to England in 1803. There he lived for nine years in great poverty, being often compelled to earn a living by giving athletic performances at the theatre. Later, he traveled to Spain, Portugal, and Malta, and in 1815 went to Egypt in order to construct a hydraulic engine for Mohammed Ali, to raise the waters of the Nile. In Egypt he met Burckhardt and Salt, through whose advice and encouragement he began the exploration of Egyptian antiquities. In 1817 he cleared away the sand from the entrance to the great rock-hewn temple of Abu Simbul (q.v.), and in the same year, discovered the finest of the royal tombs (that of Seti I) at Thebes, It is still known as "Belzonis tomb." At Gizeh he found the entrance to Khafra's Pyramid (1818 ) and made the first thorough examination of the great pyramids. He also explored the desert between the Red Sea and the Nile and visited the oasis of Siwa. The discovery of the ancient emerald mines at Gebel Zabara is often ascribed to him, but erroneously, as the place had previously been visited by Bruce and Cailliaud. Belzoni engraved his name upon many ancient monuments in commemoration of his discoveries.

In 1819 he returned to Italy and thence to England, bringing with him, for exhibition and for sale, a valuable collection of antiquities; among them the splendid alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I (now in the Kensington Museum), and the upper half of a colossal statue of Rameses II (now in the British Museum), found at the Ramesseum. Two years later he published his Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyranzids, 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 Another to the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon (London, 1821). In 1823 Belzoni undertook a journey to Timbuktu, in Central Africa, but was attacked by dysentery at Benin, and died at Gato, Dec. 3, 1823. Belzoni's skill as a draughtsman was of great service to him in his archeological investigations. His fine drawings of the royal tombs at Thebes were published in 1829 by his widow.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. III (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 121.