Customer Reviews

The Great Belzoni: The Circus Strongman Who Discovered Egypt's Ancient Treasures, Second Edition (International Library of Historical Studies)

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This is a great book about a lesser known figure in the history of Egyptian Archaeology. It des a great job of telling about his life and placing him in a proper historical context. It doesn't try to hold him to modern archaeological standards, and explains that in the 19th century archaeology was kind of a race to loot. Despite this he made a bunch of discoveries including opening the second pyramid of Giza.

The only way this book could be improved would be to include maps and a few more images of his discoveries. The maps are needed as most of the places were renamed or in a few cases he incorrectly named them. Arabic names also tend to be spelled several different ways adding to the confusion.

This is an excellent book. It is like taking the trip of a lifetime back to early 19th century Egypt

The beginning is very uninteresing. Belzoni's epypt adventures are not mentioned until your half way through the book.