DESCRIPTION DE I'EGYPTE

In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte launched an expedition of 35,000 soldiers toconquer Egypt. The campaign was a military and political disaster butnonetheless it had a profound and lasting impact, by revealing thesplendour of a mysterious and forgotten civilization. For Napoleon's ships also carried some 500 scholars, scientists andartists whose task it was to study the country and its customs. Traversinga country at war under the stifling heat of southern Egypt, they embarkedon the first major study of a land then all but unknown to Europeans. They discovered the Valley of the Kings outside Thebes. They found theRosetta stone, which when deciphered enabled scholars to readhieroglyphics. And their combined efforts culminated in what is surely oneof the most ambitiously comprehensive work ever published: the Descriptionde l'Egypte in 10 volumes with 837 copperplate engravings and more than3,000 drawings. It was as though they were cataloguing the world's richestmuseum covering three major themes with their work: "Antiquités", "EtatModerne" and "Histoire Naturelle", the first two of which are reproducedfully in this special edition.