Giovanni Battista Belzoni

Infobox Scientist
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caption = Giovanni Battista Belzoni [from his publication "Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries Within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia", London, 1820.]
birth_date = November 15 1778
birth_place = Padua
death_date = December 3, 1823
death_place = Gwato
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nationality = Italian
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known_for = Egyptian antiquities
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Giovanni Battista Belzoni; sometimes known as The Great Belzoni (November 15 1778 – December 3, 1823) was a prolific Italian explorer of Egyptian antiquities.

Biography

Belzoni was born in Padua as the son of a barber. His family was from Rome and when Belzoni was 16 he went to work there, claiming that he 'studied hydraulics'. He intended taking monastic vows, but in 1798 the occupation of the city by French troops drove him from Rome and changed his proposed career. In 1800 he moved to the Netherlands.

In 1803 he fled to England to avoid being sent to jail [ [http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/abcde/belzoni_giovanni.html a biography of Belzoni on the Minnesota State Univerity site] ] . There he married an Englishwoman, Sarah Bane or Banne. Balzoni was a tall man at 6 ft 7 in (2 m) tall (one source says that his wife was of equally generous build, but all other accounts of her describe her as being of normal build) and they both joined a travelling circus [ [http://www.belzoni.com/giovanni.htm Belzoni's biography on the Belzoni, Mississippi site] ] . They were for some time compelled to find subsistence by performing exhibitions of feats of strength and agility as a strongman at fairs and on the streets of London. In 1804 he appears engaged at the circus at Astley's amphitheatre at a variety of performances [Stanley Mayes: "The Great Belzoni, The Circus Strongman who Discovered Egypt's Trasures," ISBN1845113330] .

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, who at the time was undertaking a programme of agrarian land reclamation and important irrigation works [ [http://www.ancient-egypt.co.uk/people/pages/pasha_muhammad_ali.htm www.ancient-egypt.co.uk] ] . Belzoni wanted to show Muhammad Ali a hydraulic machine of his own invention for raising the waters of the Nile. Though the experiment with this engine was successful, the project was not approved by the pasha. Belzoni, now without a job, was resolved to continue his travels. On the recommendation of the orientalist, J. L. Burckhardt, he was sent by Henry Salt, the British consul to Egypt, to the Ramesseum at Thebes, from where he removed with great skill the colossal bust of Ramesses II, commonly called "the Young Memnon". Shipped by Belzoni to England, this piece is still on prominent display at the He also expanded his investigations to the great temple of Edfu, visited Elephantine and Philae, cleared the great temple at Abu Simbel of sand (1817), made excavations at Karnak, and opened up the sepulchre of Seti I (still sometimes known as "Belzoni's Tomb"). He was the first to penetrate into the second pyramid of Giza, and the first European in modern times to visit the oasis of Bahariya. He also identified the ruins of Berenice on the Red Sea.

In 1819 he returned to England and published an account of his travels and discoveries entitled "Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia, &c" the following year. During 1820 and 1821 he also exhibited facsimiles of the tomb of Seti I. The exhibition was held at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London. In 1822 Belzoni showed his model in Paris.

In 1823 he 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 the Kingdom of Benin, but was seized with dysentery at a village called Gwato, and died there. According to the celebrated traveller Richard Francis Burton he was murdered and robbed. In 1829 his widow published his drawings of the royal tombs at Thebes.

In popular culture

Belzoni was portrayed by Matthew Kelly in the 2005 BBC docudrama "Egypt".

References

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02425d.htm Catholic Encyclopedia article]

External links

* [http://www.belzoni.com/giovanni.htm The Great Belzoni (1778–1823)] from [http://www.belzoni.com/ Belzoni online]