Napoleon Bonapart's Expedition to Egypt, the Savant's study of Ancient Egypt ‘The Republique Francaise Geographic des Monuments’ and the 'Description De L'Egypt'

In July 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte of France mounted an expedition to conquer Egypt, he arrived at Alexandria on 1st July with 25,000 soldiers and an army of 167 commission Des Sciences et des Arts, they were a team of  scientists, artists and engineers, known as the Savants, who accompanied the troops of the Armée de l'Orient to Egypt.

Napoleon had been obsessed with Ancient Egypt since he had been a child and decided that he wanted a complete survey of chart maps, a record of contemporary life, to gather artifacts and specimens, and most importantly to document the ancient temples and monuments.

The Savants recorded everything that they saw in Egypt, to Napoleon's regret his military aspect was a failure he had intended to establish a French Colony, disrupt British trade with India, free the Egyptians from their Mameluke oppressors and impose liberty and equality on a benighted land. Things didn't work out as he had planned and he was forced to withdraw from Egypt within three years, Egypt reverted back to the Ottomans who had the support of the British in 1801. After his defeat Napoleon fled back to France leaving the Savants stranded with the remnants of the French army. Napoleon had given the Savants a vacant building in Cairo and an academic organization known as the Institute of  Egypt. it contained printing presses for both Arabic and Roman characters, a library, and laboratories for physical and chemical experiments. Girad, who had been appointed as Egyptian Minister of the Interior by Napoleon, proposed to the institute that they should explore the Nile as far as the falls. He also took part in the study of ancient monuments, including the Nilometer the Ancient Egyptian method of measuring the height of the Nile, in the Temple on Elephantine Island.

'Description De L'Egypt'

The Savants taken to complete a survey and record all aspects of Egyptian life, brought Egypt to the attention of the world once more, their working conditions were horrendous and they suffered with fevers and illness but their efforts produced in the encyclopedic 'Description de L'Egypt,' that was finally published approximately thirty years after Napoleon's campaign had begun, and almost a decade after Napoleon's death in exile from France. The twenty three volumes laid the foundations of Egyptology. The Savants carried on with their work until the final capitulation of the French to the British in September 1801. The British wanted to confiscate the Savant's work, but the Savants threatened to destroy everything rather than give it up, so the British accepted a few important discoveries, the most important being the Rosetta Stone that had been found by French army engineers in 1799 while digging the foundations for a new addition to the fort near the town of Rashid (Rosetta). The Stone has three forms of writing on it, it is a decree by Ptloemy V, and is written in the Ancient Egyptian language of the Gods in the tombs and temples, Hieroglyphs, the other two languages on the Rosetta Stone are written in Egyptian Demonic, and Greek. The last people to be able to understand Hieroglyphs were the Priests from the Temple of Isis at Philae, as this Temple was created during the Greek period of Egypt. The Goddess Isis was embraced by both the Greeks and the Romans.

After years of studying the Rosetta Stone that the French had taken a tracing of, before they allowed the British to keep the stone a French linguist Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered the inscriptions and the Language of the Gods was alive again. For his discoveries, Champollion is heralded as the founding father of Egyptology. Champollion visited Egypt to see the temples and hieroglyphs for himself, whilst there he became ill with fever and exhaustion and on his return to France he died of a stroke in 1832, after his death his Grammar and Dictionary of hieroglyphs was published.


One of the guest Artists of the expedition was Dominique Vivant Denon who was befriended King Louis XV, he survived the French Revolution, and attracted the attention of Napoleon. He joined the expedition at Napoleon’s invitation, although he was not included in the Commission of Sciences and Arts (the Savants).

Denon was the first artist to discover and draw the temples in Dendera, Luxor, Esna, Edfu and Philae, he was allowed to join the  troops as they worked their way through Egypt, and was thrilled when they arrived at the first temple of the Goddess Hathor at Dendera, where he sat down to draw the Temple.

The Temple of the Goddess Hathor at Dendera


Looking around the temple he found a circular zodiac on the ceiling of a small chapel on the roof of the temple, he didn't have time to draw it though, this small chapel is dedicated to the god Osiris, within the middle room  the famous circular zodiac ceiling is portrayed, the Romans had incorporated their own beliefs with the Egyptians to create this amazing ceiling, which is one of the earliest representations of the zodiac ever to be found, the original is no longer at Dendera it was blasted off the ceiling after Napoleon's expedition had brought it to the attention of the world .In 1821 an antiquities collector employed a French engineer who came to remove and collect the zodiac ceiling, it arrived in Paris in 1822 and was put on show until King Louis XV111 bought it for 150.000 francs, a plaster cast impression of the original is all that is now left at Dendera, the original is now on show in the Louvre Museum. There is a circle of the heavens that is supported by four feminine figures standing erect at the four corners of the cardinal points of the earth, within the heavens we can see the zodiac representations that almost appear to swirl around as the earth revolves.

Karnack Temple

The troop ships moved south reaching Luxor to find the Temples of Karnack the earthly home of the supreme God Amun Ra,'Iput Isut' the Sacred Place and Luxor Temple,  that was created to celebrate the Opet Festival a yearly Event where the King and Egypt would be renewed,. As their ship arrived at Karnack they were so overwhelmed with her majesty that they immediately stood to attention and saluted to a drum roll.

Walking through the first pylon of Karnack Temple the immense width of the pylons humble you, almost at the top on the right hand side of the first pylon there is inscribed into the stones the record of the Savants arrival at Karnack ‘The Republique Francaise  Geographic des Monuments’ they had given the longitude and latitude of all the temples that they had studied in Egypt.

Tuthmosis 111 war records and prisoners are recorded on the walls of Karnack Temple. He spent most of his rule on Campaign he was  military genius of his time, and he brought wealth and power to Egypt. The French were so impressed with his long Battle records and Campaigns recorded on the walls of Karnack temple that they declared him to be 'The Egyptian Napoleon'. He understood the value of logistics and lines of supply, the necessity of rapid movement, and the sudden surprise attack. He led by example and was probably the first person in history to take full advantage of sea power to support his campaigns.



Colossi of Memnon

Denon found himself working alone in his attempts to make visual records of the Egyptian monuments then he met another expedition that had been sent out by Napoleon whilst he was drawing the Colossi of Memnon, under the direction of the engineer Pierre-Simon Girard. The purpose of this expedition was to make a hydrographic study of the upper Nile, and many of the members of the Commission were sent along. Denon showed them his portfolio, which included a view of the magnificent Colossi of Memnon, on the plain west of Thebes. The engineers were amazed, and wanted to spend their time recording ground plans and elevations, but Girard objected strongly. Archaeology was not their mission, he claimed. But whenever their hydrographic work was done, the engineers would visit the ruins. The Colossi originally stood either side of the entrance to the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep 111 who also created the large Festival hall surrounded by columns in Luxor Temple, his wife Tiy is embracing his leg on the first statue.


The  Ramesseum - The Mortuary Temple of Ramses the Great

In the Description de l'Egypte, two French engineers of the expedition, Jollois and De Villiers, provided in 1821 the first scientific study and the first plans of the mortuary temple of Ramses the Great, it was titled' Description of  'The Tomb of  Osymandyas.' or "The Palace of Memnon', of which Diodorus of Sicily had written in the 1st century B.C.

The name 'Ramessium' was inspired by Champollion during his visit to Egypt in 1829, he gave it the name 'Rhamesseion' because he had identified the hieroglyphs making up Ramses names and titles on the walls

The Valley of The Kings

In 1799, members of Napoleon's expedition arrived at the Valley of the Kings, Vivant Denon drew maps and plans of the known tombs, and for the first time Valley Jollois and Édouard de Villiers  located the tomb of Amenhotep III, who was the Pharaoh who created the Festival Hall in Luxor Temple, and the Colossi of Memnon, the statues that originally stood before his Mortuary Temple. Since the discovery of the Tomb of Amenophis 111 the funerary objects have appeared on European markets.

The troops moved south rapidly. They reached Esna, then Edfu, but Denon was limited to how much time that he could spend recording the temples. in February 1799 they arrived at Aswan and Denon finally had free time for his work recording the temples, he explored Elephantine and saw the Nilometer and then he found the Temple of Philae.

The Temple of Isis at Philae

Arriving at Philae the local inhabitants would not allow the French to land for some time, but eventually the natives were forcibly evicted, and Denon was allowed to explore the many temples on the island he wrote in his journal:

'The next day was the finest to me of my whole travels. I possessed seven or eight monuments in the space of six hundred yards, and could examine them quite at my ease… I was alone in full leisure, and could make my drawings without interruption.'

Denon was enthralled by the tiny Kiosk of Trajan. He wrote that if ever the French were to take a monument back to Paris, he felt that this should be the one because he wrote, 'it would give a palpable proof of the noble simplicity of Egyptian architecture, and would show, in a striking manner, that it is character, and not extent alone, which gives dignity to an edifice.'

By the end of February, the soldiers headed back north, with Murad Bey always a little ahead of them, so  Denon finally had a second chance to see many of the monuments, that he had not had time to sketch on there first arrival. He had been rushed through Karnack and Luxor temples previously, but now he had time to draw them on this his fourth visit. In May they arrived at Dendera againand Denon drew the Zodiac ceiling that he would make famous, as it is the earliest record of the Zodiac signs in history.

Denon finally arrived back in Cairo in July of 1799 where he met with members of the Institute and showed them his drawings and they were captivated by what he had managed to record, Napoleon was so impressed with Denon's drawings that he authorized two more expeditions to Upper Egypt with the express purpose of studying the antiquities they headed south in August 1799.

Napoleon fled Egypt France, deserting his troops and his savants, and taking with him Monge, and Berthollet, and Denon. On his arrival home Denon began to prepare his journal and drawings, and they finally appeared in a folio edition in 1802.

The studies of the Savants, the encyclopedic 'Description de L'Egypt,' was finally published approximately thirty years after Napoleon's campaign had begun, and almost a decade after Napoleon's death in exile from France. The twenty three volumes laid the foundations of Egyptology.