Egypt Lost & Found: Explorers and Travelers on the Nile [Hardcover]

Siliotti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999

From immense pyramids to golden baubles of eternal beauty, the artifacts of Egyptian civilization have fascinated and tempted men since the advent of recorded history.

Egypt Lost and Found chronicles how this amazing culture has been unearthed and translated by archeologists over the past three centuries. From the first account of a journey up the Nile by a Venetian in 1589 to the details of how Jean Francois Campollion cracked the enigma of the hieroglyphs-revealing unimaginable tales written on the walls of tombs and temples -this is the story of the rediscovery of ancient Egypt, its monuments and treasures, by European travelers.

In chapter after chapter, readers are swept forward into the unknown world of obelisks, monuments, and brilliantly painted walls. Featured also are maps, statues, portraits of the explorers and of the people of Egypt, as well as scenes highlighting the magnificence of the landscapes, temples, and pyramids.

In this amazing book, author Alberto Siliotti recaptures the excitement and wonder of those early, intrepid explorers and illuminates some of the greatest adventures and discoveries of all time.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"The East", according to the 19th-century statesman Benjamin Disraeli, "is a career". In Alberto Siliotti's magnificent Egypt Lost and Found, it becomes clear just how many careers have been founded on the West's enduring fascination with the history, monuments, and people of this most evocative part of the East. As its title suggests, the book traces Europe's rediscovery of Egypt, beginning with the shadowy and exotic accounts in Herodotus and Ptolemy, and ending with the 19th-century Orientalist paintings of Hector Horeau and David Roberts.

Along the way, Egypt Lost and Found is full of marvelous stories of travelers, diplomats, and scholars who became ensnared in the mysteries of Egypt from the 16th century onward--including the German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, who lost himself in the esoteric mysteries of Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the unscrupulous Émile Prisse d'Avennes, who disguised himself as a native in the 1840s to steal wall reliefs from the Temple of Karnak. Standing at the center of Siliotti's book is Napoleon's 1798 conquest of Egypt, and the race for Egyptian antiquities that it sparked between French, German, and English Orientalists. The color and the opulence of Siliotti's story is matched only by the book itself. Learned but concise, the book emphasizes the extraordinary illustrations--over 1,000, most in color--of the visual record of an enduring obsession with Egypt--an obsession to which Egypt Lost and Found is an eager addition. --Jerry Brotton

From Publishers Weekly

EuropeanAparticularly French, Italian and BritishAexploration of Egypt, from the Middle Ages to the mid-19th century, receives royal treatment in this spectacularly illustrated book from journalist and photographer Siliotti (Egypt: Splendors of an Ancient Civilization). The author follows successive waves of merchants, tourists and soldiers to the land that many once believed was "the source of all human knowledge and science." He shows how Napoleon's exploration in Egypt, to which he brought 162 scholars along with his armies, was a major triumph in Egyptology despite its failure as a military campaign. Siliotti also recounts the biographies and stealth of the major players of the "war of the consuls," which marked the beginning of the "systematic plunder of Egypt's archaeological heritage by the diplomats of various European nations" who sought treasures for the greater glory of their national museums. Along the way, the author provides detailed histories of map-making and excavations. Though Siliotti's writing can be dry, but what's astonishing here are the magnificent, brilliantly reproduced illustrations. Every page of this large-sized book is graced by European drawings, etchings, manuscripts, paintings and maps of EgyptA1050 color plates in allAmaking this a volume eminently suitable for both the coffee table and the library.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 359 pages
• Publisher: Stewart, Tabori and Chang (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556708769
• ISBN-13: 978-1556708763
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 10.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,567,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Superb Collation, March 11, 2003

By 

Henry J. Blackmore (Western Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Egypt Lost & Found: Explorers and Travelers on the Nile (Hardcover)

This large book invites opening on a coffee table and simply spreading oneself across its pages of magnificent illustrations to pore over their exquisite detail and colour. We can be transported back several centuries and share the wonder felt by the various artists as they strove to conserve, with meticulous care, copies of the ancient hieroglyphs and awe-inspiring sculptures for us to enjoy. This book is a great supplement to my present extensive library of Egyptology (I confess deep wonder and fascination for the civilisation of that place and period in human history). Much of what is shown in this book has since disappeared - demolished, decayed further, vandalised, removed piecemeal to museums far afield - other sites have been excavated from the encroaching sands or transposed to other locations. Hence it is interesting to compare today's photographs of these sites with the drawings and paintings of a century and more past of the same locations. I'm sure anyone with a feeling for the people who lived so long ago, and who worked hard to produce these enduring monuments to their culture, will not be disappointed with this superb collation.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, February 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Egypt Lost & Found: Explorers and Travelers on the Nile (Hardcover)

I should have looked at the physical size of the book before I bought it. It is a coffee table book. The pictures are all drawings and water colors of artists who travelled in Egypt, no photographs. Although they are mostly beautiful, it was not as I expected. Each "traveler" gets about 6 paragraphs, hardly an in-depth history of Egyptian exploration. I can't recommend anyone spend this kind of money on the book.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars simply excellent, April 1, 2000

By 

ERICH NEMER RIBEIRO (Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Egypt Lost & Found: Explorers and Travelers on the Nile (Hardcover)

Some north americans (europeans usually like) dislike to buy books full of color pages. My idea of a book on Arts, Minerals, Precious Stones and Jewelry is that it has to have all pictures in color and, if possible, full color pages. I have to see its colors, the colors the artist wants to show in his art. I like very much when I find "coffee table books" to be bought, because only this kind of books bring the same vision we see the world around us (in color).