secrets of the lost tomb painted miniatures

In attempting to attribute the monuments to any particular period or king they were largely reliant on the somewhat garbled accounts of Egypt’s history written by classical authors such as Diodorus and Strabo. Little remained of any grave goods or the occupants, but the walls were brightly painted with exotic scenes of the kings and an array of curious human and animal gods, and everywhere were the enigmatic hieroglyphic signs, though no-one could read the inscriptions at this point. In each case it had been pillaged by robbers. The tombs consisted of long corridors cut into the rock that eventually led to larger chambers, the last of which typically contained a stone sarcophagus that should have held a body. The savants were clearly awed by what they had found. Histories of Egyptology commonly begin with Napoleon

Furthermore, they seem to have been the first to record the existence of the side wadi leading off the main branch of the necropolis to the west, now known as the Western Valley. Two of them, Prosper Jollois and Édouard de Villiers du Terrage, made the first accurate map of the site, noting the position of 16 tombs, most of which had been open and accessible since antiquity. On 26 January 1799, the savants reached the spectacular ruins of Thebes Molouk, ‘the Valley of the Gates of the Kings’. Read more | 10 things you (probably) didn't know about ancient Egypt.These had been visited and described by various western travellers, but no expedition on this scale had ever been attempted. His ‘savants’, however, were there for more enlightened reasons: they were to journey around the country, surveying and recording all they found, including the remains of Egypt’s ancient monuments. Napoleon’s intention was to establish Egypt as a French colony, strengthen his grip on the Mediterranean and deal a blow to Britain. Histories of Egyptology commonly begin on 1 July 1798, when Napoleon landed on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt with an expeditionary force not only comprised of soldiers, but also of artists and scientists.

Secrets of the lost tomb painted miniatures