Giovanni Belzoni's exploration of Egypt - An Italian Adventurer,Engineer,and Amateur Egyptologist.

I believe the exploits of Belzoni and Napoleon inspired the world once more and woke  Ancient Egypt from its slumbers, it is alive  again, and the name of Ramses 11 will live for eternity his star has risen in the heavens once more and travelers  flock to this antique land again.

Removal of the 'Young Memnon' from The Ramesseum - The Mortuary Temple of Ramses the Great

In 1816 an Italian adventurer engineer and an amateur egyptologist called Giovanni Belzoni, arrived in Luxor, he had originally started his career as a strong man in the circus, when things became hard to earn a living by this means Belzoni grasped the chance to work in Egypt using his knowledge of hydraulics, when this also failed he then accepted work from Thomas Salt the British Consul to Egypt to track down and collect antiquities that Salt then sold onto The British Museum. When Belzoni arrived at the Ramesseum he enlisted the help of one of the local village chief's, who provided him with men to help him pull the head of a statue known as the ‘young Memnon’ to the banks of the Nile, the young Memnon was one of two smaller seated statues of Ramses that sat in the second courtyard each side of the steps that lead into the hypostyle hall. When Belzoni arrived in Egypt there was no protection for the antiquities and the local village people were not interested in the ancient temples, so with payment for their labors they happily helped him to remove the head of the young Memnon.

Belzoni moved the head in the same way that the ancient Egyptians had completed all their heavy stone moving tasks. He laid the head on a sledge of rolling logs with the aid of pulleys. For three weeks the troop of eighty men pulled the largest known colossal head weighing seven and a half tons, and still they only covered two and a half miles. Belzoni became ill with sun blindness and the head was abandoned. When he recovered the locals considered him crazy as he wanted to continue with his plan to get the head to the Nile, for Belzoni the task had now become more urgent as he realized that his illness had set him back, and he knew that it would soon be time for the annual Nile flood. He convinced the chief to help him again, and triumphantly they finally reached the Nile a few weeks later where the head was put on a Felucca and sailed to Cairo to add to Salt's collection.

Belzoni in the Valley of the Kings - His discovery of the Tomb of Seti 1

Across the river Nile on the western shore of Thebes, there lays a desolate winding valley that hibernates within a barren and silent city for the dead, the sides of the valley twist and turn and contort into a mountain that forms a natural pyramid known as 'The Quorn', like the pyramids this is a ladder to the stars and eternal life. It encloses the subterranean tombs and final resting places of the once living Gods of Ancient Weset, the pharaohs of The New Kingdom

At the beginning of October 1817 Giovanni Belzoni arrived in the Valley of the Kings, while in the Valley of the Kings, though in many instances, because hieroglyphs had not yet been deciphered, he had no idea who or what he had found, he knew nothing of ancient Egyptian beliefs and so the tombs that he found amazed him, he found their radiance of colour astounding after he had walked through the barren wasteland of the deserts ridges, and worked in the scorching heat of the sun, searching for an entrance or portal that could possibly lead him to hidden treasure. He had left the Rammessium having safely transported the head of Ozymandias - Ramses 11 from the Rammessium to the Nile, and it was now sailing steadily to Cairo, so he gave his full attention to observing the rock formations in this valley, noticing how the limestone and shale had been shaped by ancient waterfalls. Within two weeks he had located six royal tombs.the tomb belonging to King Ay, but only noted a wall painting of 12 baboons, leading him to christen the chamber 'Tomb of the 12 monkeys.'

On the 16th October his workmen reached an entrance in an area that he had instructed them to dig, they cut a small channel through the sealed entrance for Belzoni to crawl through.  To his delight he had   discovered the largest tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the tomb of Seti 1 nothing that he had yet found had given him as much delight as the splendor of colour within the tomb of Seti whose walls of the tomb were covered with scenes of the king in the company of the gods on his journey through the underworld, and finally being united with them in paradise. Rituals hymns and texts from the Book of the Dead are carved in its walls, whose chapters were a powerful magical guide to help the spirit from wandering among the living and to help it to find its way home to enjoy an eternal life on this hazardous journey after the death of its mortal body. Belzoni and his workers took wax impressions of the reliefs, and when he returned to London in 1821 Belzoni had the opportunity to re-create the burial chamber of Seti I, in an amazing exhibition called 'Egyptian Hall, near Piccadilly Circus.The room reflected Belzoni's expeditions and contained the plaster casts he had taken in the Tomb of Seti, whose elaborately carved white alabaster sarcophagus was removed by Belzoni and eventually purchased by John Sloane in 1924, who displayed it in the 'Sepulchral Chamber' at the heart of his museum The sarcophagus is carved from pearly translucent stone that was highly valued by the ancient Egyptians. Across the surface of the sarcophagus both inside and out, are carved in hieroglyphics an Egyptian text that is known as the Book of the Gates, this is a series of spells and rituals that the dead pharaoh would need to safely pass through the underworld and reach the afterlife. Inside across the bottom of the Sarcophagus is the elegantly drawn figure of the Goddess Nut, the Goddess of the sky, whose role was to guide and protect the dead. The Image above shows how the burial chamber of Seti would look using a 3D printer


Belzoni at Philae Temple - Obelisk of Ptolemy V111

One of Belzoni's most eagerly anticipated destinations was the island of Philae, where he arrived in November 1818, it was verdant and palm fringed, and at the time of Belzoni's arrival it was located in the middle of the Nile at Aswan. The temple is the earthly home of the Goddess Isis and Belzoni went to the temple to collect a toppled obelisk that had originally stood in front of the first pylon, stood in front of the first pylon of the temple. An Englishman named Banks wanted to put the Obelisk on his Kingston Lacey Estate in Dorset. The Obelisk had been erected by Ptolemy V111 around 118-116 B.C. and had a triple Greek inscription with the text of a correspondence between Ptolemy and the priests' and also a hieroglyphic script. Once the obelisk had been carried to the Bank of the Nile and was ready for embarkation, it slid into the river because the pier built by Belzoni caved in, undeterred Belzoni managed to retrieve the Obelisk when everyone thought it was lost for good. Belzoni had a rival working in Egypt named Drovetti, who did not approve of Belzoni because as an explorer Belzoni was motivated by finding artifacts so that he could sell them to collectors. His methods were often destructive and quite unorthodox but his discoveries did lay the foundation for the scientific study of Egyptology.  Drovetti was working on a dig in Luxor when he saw the Obelisk  arrive at Luxor a heated argument occurred between the two men and Drovetti's agents beat Belzoni's servant and armed with rifles even threatened Belzoni himself, so after collecting the fragile alabaster sarcophagus of Seti 1, and a set of Lion-headed statues from south of the main Temple of Karnack in the precinct of Mut  Belzoni finally left Egypt for good



Belzoni at the Temple of Ramses 11 at Abu Simbel.

When Belzoni arrived at the Temple of Ramses the Great at Abu Simbel, he was dismayed to find 30 feet of sand covering the temple entrance. He remained there several weeks, and paid locals to dig the sand away from the temple entrance, and so he was the first explorer to enter inside the Chamber of Ramses






Belzoni discovers the Inner chambers in the Pyramid of Khafre at Giza

On March 2nd 1818 Belzoni was the first person in modern times to enter the innermost chambers of the pyramid of Khafre at Giza. The entrance area had been deliberately confused by its designers with false passages and chambers. Belzoni used his engineering genius to locate the entrance to the inner chambers.He wrote on the wall 'Scoperta Da (Discovered by) G. Belzoni 2 Mar. 1818. At the west end of the burial chamber Belzoni discovered an empty sarcophagus and Arabic writing which said that the pyramid had been opened in the time of King Ali Mohammed approximately 1200 A.D.



After returning to England in 1819 Belzoni published a book entitled 'Narrative of the Operations, and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia' Belzoni used his own drawings in the publication. The book received great publicity and made Belzoni famous. His work is regarded as being the first English research into Egyptology. Belzoni never returned to Egypt, he died of dysentery in a small village in Benin, near Timbuktu in southern Africa.

The Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings & the Tomb of Seti 1

‘ Make beautiful your resting place in the West, make splendid your resting place in the City of the Dead, Thanks to your just way of life, it is here that your heart and soul can rest’
Merikare

‘I am yesterday today and tomorrow,
And I have the power to be born a second time'
The Book of the Dead

Across the river Nile on the western shore of Thebes, there lays a desolate winding valley that hibernates within a barren and silent city for the dead, where no life can sustain on its parched desert rocks. In ancient days this was a secret place with only one way into the valley, its dusty road was only followed by the ritual funeral entourage of ancient times, and if you go into the valley you can only return by the road that you came. The sides of the valley twist and turn and contorting into a mountain that forms a natural pyramid known as 'The Quorn', like the pyramids this is a ladder to the stars and eternal life. It encloses the subterranean tombs and final resting places of the once living Gods of Ancient Weset, the pharaohs of The New Kingdom. 

Try and imagine the tombs with an invisible passage of water that flows within a dark tunnel of fear and chaos that could ultimately lead you to the light and eternity. A golden barque that has soaked in the rays of the sun during the hours of the day will now be empowered to travel through the darkness of the night on this eternal carrier of light, and it waits for you. Your   mortal body is dead, you are incapable of speech, you cannot move,  you are traveling across the waters of chaos, you are helpless, you sense a macabre fear of something enclosing you in the water, suddenly the water begins to drain away, a demon snake known as Apophis has guzzled the water, and your barque is becoming trapped in sandbanks, but they are not sandbanks they are the obese fat crushing coils of this  gigantic snake that will trap the barque, while its demon eyes  will hypnotize the crew, enabling the snake to swallow their heads engulfing them in everlasting darkness. Panic and chaos ensues, help is desperately needed, the companions on the barque struggle to fight off this vile creature, that has swum in the waters of chaos for eternity, In the battle Heka stands on the prow of the boat his divine magic was given to the human race by Ra and with his magical incantations he will exorcise the snake, subduing it to his power.  Ra then calls for Set, the god of Darkness, war and Chaos to help them kill the snake whilst Heka has it in his spell, Seth leaps to the prow of the boat with his spear launching it at this terrifying demon serpent, it rises above the boat emitting a screech as its poisonous fangs launch towards them, Seth leaps onto the serpent and thrusts his sword into the back of its head.  Screeching it crashes into the waters of chaos launching the boat into a tidal wave through the caverns. Seth is washed across to the shore where he drags the serpent and hacks its goutiness body to pieces.  In contempt of Ra and the other companions he gloats that only he could save them from the threat of this Demon, Ra in his anger instructs Hu and Sia to guide the boat to safer waters, leaving Seth on the shore. Hu takes a deep breath, then releases the divine breath of life across the water, and the barque once more is thrust into fresher waters, the light and perception of Hu’s female partner Sia expresses the mind of Ra, and together the spiritual essence of these companions on the boat connect the soul with the heart of Ra once more and enable it to journey towards the light again leaving behind the terrible darkness and fear of attack.Only a   man with a pure and righteous heart  ould be offered the everlasting release and joy to be a part of the eternal cosmic cycle of renewal with the God Ra,   the alternative was a macabre and  sinister torment that would await an unrighteous man, before the new kingdom  those who were found guilty were damned to suffer a continuous cycle of everlasting torment in the outer darkness  of an area in the deepest recesses of the underworld, a place of continuous punishment that was infested with demons who had risen from the ranks of the damned themselves, killing and torturing each other. They would rip the protective mummy wrappings off each other, screeching and tearing each others flesh , their skin no longer protected, it rotted  and decomposed  Their hearts were ripped out and the ba soul was lost, never knowing the way to fly back to its bodily home again. Thirst and hunger ravished them, but they are denied the gifts of wine or bread, as their funeral gifts never reach them.,  they would sneak past the four baboons that guarded the Lake of burning fire only to find the water was not cool for them,  refreshing their thirst as it would for a righteous man, for the damned it was a place of destruction where burning, bloody water and the horrendous stench of putrefying burnt flesh  rose from its cesspools, for they were the brothers of Set, the God who murdered his own brother Osiris, and disguised himself as a pig to blind Horus thus causing  the eclipses of the light and sun. Their torment never ceased but each new dawn a ray of hope would spring forth inside their wretched bodies as a blinding golden barque passed overhead rays of light lit up the darkness for a second and as the ray of light passed over them, they would scream and beg for help, but the Righteous Barque of Ra sailed silently over them, completely oblivious to their cries and torment………………..  Only enter these portals of ancient Egypt to catch a glimpse of your possible destiny if you believe that you have lived a righteous life, for these tunnels are the passage between what we understand as Heaven and hell.

At the beginning of October 1817 Giovanni Belzoni arrived in the Valley of the Kings, he knew nothing of ancient Egyptian beliefs and so the tombs that he found amazed him, he found their radiance of colour astounding after he had walked through the barren wasteland of the deserts ridges, and worked in the scorching heat of the sun, searching for an entrance or portal that could possibly lead him to hidden treasure. He had left the Rammessium having safely transported the head of Ozymandias - Ramses 11 from the Rammessium to the Nile, and it was now sailing steadily to Cairo, so he gave his full attention to observing the rock formations in this valley, noticing how the limestone and shale had been shaped by ancient waterfalls. Within two weeks he had located six royal tombs. 

On the 16th October his workmen reached an entrance in an area that he had instructed them to dig, they cut a small channel through the sealed entrance for Belzoni to crawl through.  To his delight he had   discovered the largest tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the tomb of Seti 1 nothing that he had yet found had given him as much delight as the splendor of colour within the tomb of Seti whose walls of the tomb were covered with scenes of the king in the company of the gods on his journey through the underworld, and finally being united with them in paradise. Rituals hymns and texts from the Book of the Dead are carved in its walls, whose chapters were a powerful magical guide to help the spirit from wandering among the living and to help it to find its way home to enjoy an eternal life on this hazardous journey after the death of its mortal body. 

Entering Seti’s tomb Belzoni  went down a set of steps where beautiful poetic hymns  the  ‘Litanies of Re',  praise the Sun God Re in all his known names. Down a second set of steps in the second corridor   the 'Book of Amunduat  describes the twelve hours of the night in the underworld as the Sun God journeys through them on his solar boat. Crossing over a ritual well a hall with four pillars is found, and then into a larger hall with only two pillars where the book of Amunduat is portrayed again. The Egyptians believed in the immortality of a man’s soul and the indestructibility of the human personality, so the soul would need his physical voice and senses when he entered the Hall of Judgement. Seti stands in his mummy wrappings as the Opening of the Mouth ritual is given to him, during this magical ritual, the mummy of Seti is purified with water and incense, and anointed with sacred oils. His mouth, ears, eyes, nose and other parts of the body are touched with ritual implements to restore his senses and movement so that he can speak to the Gods in the hall of judgment. And defend his actions in life. The God Anubis would guide him towards the scales of justice where the gods waited in judgment of him. Standing before the Gods of the court Seti would recite

'My heart my mother, my heart my mother, my heart my coming into being. May there be nothing to resist me at my judgement, may the sherit not cause my name to stink, and may no lies be spoken against me in the presence of the God.’ Then an endless list of all the deceased attributes and qualities of his life are given to the gods, he must confess any wrongdoing, as his heart that is contained in a jar is weighed on the giant set of scales. On the opposite side of the scales the serene Goddess of Justice and truth, the Goddess Maat calmly lays down her feather of truth to weigh against the conscience and heart of Seti. The demon creature known as Ammit snarls at the side of the scales, its teeth waiting to rip and tear and feed on any unrighteous heart. Its grotesque body is the head of a crocodile while it lower part becomes an angry male hippopotamus, the evil demon side of Set who could morph into the form of dangerous animals. Thoth the scribe of the gods writes all the notes of the court and the judgment given.

Coming down and passing the 'Opening of the mouth ceremony, a six pillared hall that leads into the burial chamber of Seti where his ascension into Heaven would continue. Surrounding the pillared hall are small chambers that tell the legend of the 'Book of the Sacred Cow',  whose body is painted in red   where stars glow from beneath  her belly, and her legs are the  four cardinal points of the earth, between this  earthly space sail two barques of Ra, above her back is the heavens where he will ascend at each new dawn.  The text tells the myth of the conflict between Ra and humankind, when Ra was the Divine king of the mortal world and walked amongst his people. He had ruled for many centuries, and was very old, during this time he became disturbed by the rebellious noises from his people wondering if he was fit to rule because of his old age, he was angry that his people were now openly plotting a rebellion against him, when the people realized that Ra suspected them of rebellion they then worried that he would tire of them and wipe them out in a complete flood that would return Egypt into the watery abyss of Nun from which all life had originally been created.  Ra summoned Shu Tefnut Geb Nut and Nun,   the Gods of fire air earth and water, and finally Hathor for their advice He decided to send the eye of Horus to slaughter the humans as they tried to escape into the desert. Unfortunately the eye of Horus had manifested into Sekhmet, the fearsome lion goddess of retribution revenge and purification, and the fields became red with blood as she pounced on the terrified mortals, her teeth ripping their bodies apart and her claws hurtling the mangled flesh across the fields. Ra became anxious that Sekhmet would completely destroy the human race as her rage had become so ferocious. To save the people that were praying for his forgiveness in the temples he instructed a High Priest to grind up hematite and mix it with red ochre in 7,000 jars of beer, to make the beer look like blood. The priests worked all night, and when they were finished Ra instructed them to flood the fields with the red beer. Once again Sekhmet arrived on the fields of slaughter and she was ecstatic, assuming that she had found a sea of human blood, which she gulped down greedily. This had the desired result, as in her drunken state she was no longer aware of the people of Egypt and she was unable to continue with her massacre.  Ra’s compassion had saved the honorable ones, but after the trauma of the conflict he was weary and tired, and so he decided to abdicate, instructing Thoth to learn humans the skills that were necessary through literacy to lead a righteous life. Having saved his people from annihilation, Ra was exhausted and weary so he ascended to the Heavens on the back of the Divine Cow for some peace and quiet telling Nut that he wanted to leave this world and return to the Cosmos where he would create a heaven and prepare a dwelling place for all the righteous ones who spoke his name could follow.  When he spoke the words a great field of peace was created enclosed in the embrace of beautiful stars. The weight of Ra’s new creation of heaven was too much for Nut to bear on her own, trembling under the weight she almost collapsed, Ra immediately went to her assistance and instructed Shu to support her body, fearing that she might fall, Ra caused to come into being the Four Pillars on which the heavens are supported.  Turning to
Shu, Ra entreated him to protect these supports, and to place himself under Nut, and to hold her up in position with his hands.  Thus Shu became the new Sun-god in the place of Ra, and the heavens in which Ra lived were supported and placed beyond the risk of falling, and mankind would live and rejoice in the light of the new sun.

These side chambers and six pillared hall lead into the Burial Chamber of Seti, where the king's ascension to eternal life with the God's would continue. He would recite to them:  ‘Hail, Disk, and Lord of Rays, who rises on the horizon day by day!  Shine with your beams of light upon the face of Osiris Seti, who is victorious, for he sings hymns of praise to you at dawn, and he makes you set at eventide with words of adoration.  May the soul of Osiris Seti, the triumphant one, come forth with you into heaven, may he come forth in the Sektet boat, and may he cleave his path among the never resting stars in the heavens'.

  Having passed the hall of judgment, together   with Osiris, Seti would vanish into the night to re-appear more brilliantly at dawn on the eastern horizon where they would be purified in Nun, The Waters of Creation. Together they had overcome death and were re-born with the sun God Ra at dawn, when the deceased would have blessings of eternal life and happiness and it was believed that he would then dwell eternally on his own homestead in 'The Field of Reeds’ a place of fertility and everlasting beauty surrounded by canals and fields of wheat and corn.  Everything the king needed for this new life was sealed into the tomb with him, all his favorite possessions, his clothes throne jewels and even general household goods. Clay servants called shabati’s were placed in boxes in the tomb, they magically came to life when the king spoke to them. Their bodies were inscribed with chapter six of The Book of the Dead ‘O shabatis, if the deceased is called upon to do any of the work required there in the necropolis at any time......you shall say 'Here I am.  I will do it' this spell ensured that the king was not expected to do any hard manual work in his afterlife as the shabati’s would do anything that he required them to do for him.

When Belzoni arrived at the burial chamber he found an empty but beautiful translucent calcite sarcophagus, the body of Seti was missing, he had been removed along with all his worldly goods during the 21st dynasty by the priests of Amun, his body was eventually found in a hidden cache by Victor Lloret in the royal cache at Dier El Bahari in 1881. Belzoni was astounded by Seti’s  spectacular astronomical ceiling that was painted dark blue to represents the night sky and the heavens, the star constellations glow from their deep blue radiance. 

Belzoni was so thrilled at finding Seti's tomb, he spent many months recording it, he decided to recreate the tomb using plaster castings of it's walls so that he would be able to show the wonders of the tomb to the public , regrettably these have damaged the original relief's and the paintwork, although his innovative idea and installation art of Seti’s tomb caused an absolute sensation in Europe, and his travels inspired a  generation  of people to travel to this land of ancient Gods and Subterranean tombs.