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Giovanni Belzoni In the late 1700s and 1800s, the powerful nations of Europe competed for the finest and largest antiquities Egypt had to offer. The race to stuff the great European museums sometimes degenerated into brawls and worse in a “wild, wild West” atmosphere. Giovanni Belzoni, a red-headed giant who worked in a British carnival as a strongman, aka “The Patagonian Sampson,” stepped into this heady and exotic milieu in 1815. Belzoni, who studied hydraulics, was drawn to Egypt by the Pasha’s need for Western technology. His water wheel invention didn’t work, and he and his wife were stranded in Cairo. “As unlikely as it seems, Belzoni was one of the fathers of Egyptology,” Ryan said. Henry Salt, the British Consul in Egypt, soon hired him to transport a giant bust of Ramses II to England. No job was too big for Belzoni, but the Italian explorer grew weary of working for Salt and struck off on his own. He spent four more years in Egypt and his accomplishments, for which he is often uncredited, put him ahead of his time. “He was the first to enter Khafre’s pyramid and the first to enter Ramses’ temple at Abu Simbel,” Ryan said. Another of Belzoni’s firsts was digging in the Valley of the Kings. He rediscovered five tombs, including Seti I’s in 1817.
Approximate Word count = 871
Approximate Pages = 3.5
(250 words per page double spaced)
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