Casa da Vida

 

Even after the departure of Napoleon's fleet, Egypt remained a battleground for Anglo-French rivalry. But the 'campaign' now took the form of a bitter competition to see who could obtain the best antiquities. French efforts were led be Bernardino Drovetti (1776-1852), an Italian-born diplomat who had fought with Napoleon Bonaparte's forces. He was French Consul-General in Egypt from 1802 to 1814, regaining the post in 1802. In 1816 Henry Salt was appointed Consul-General representing British interests. He had been trained as an artist and travelled extensively in the East and Egypt. Both men financed excavations and amassed collections, which they then sold, obtaining funds for further work in Egypt. Drovetti's treasures include the collection that forms the foundation of the Egyptian Museum in Turin. One of Salt's best-known finds is the colossal head of Ramesses II, now in the British Museum. The rivalry between Drovetti and Salt found fertile ground at Giza, the setting also for some Egyptology's most remarkable characters

Giovanni Battista Caviglia

The Sailor and the Strongman

In the late 18th century Italy produced two unlikely heroes of Egyptology. They shared first names and a passion for the antiquities of ancient Egypt; and both were also possessed of adventurous, fearless spirits. Giovanni Battista Caviglia (1770-1845), born in Genoa, spent his early life sailing a merchant ship around the Mediterranean. But this uneducated, temperamental seaman's real vocation turned out to be Egyptology. Caviglia was employed by several European collectors to find objects. His own obsessive interest in religion led to a conviction that chambers within the Great Pyramid held mystic secrets. From 1816 to 1819 he therefore explored the pyramids and tombs of Giza and he was the first to carry out major excavation on the Giva Plateau.

Belzoni's main contribution to pyramid studies was his opening
of the unknown upper entrance of Khafre's pyramid at Giza in
1818. When he reached the burial chamber, he found an Arabic
inscription. 'the master Mohammed Ahmed, quarryman, has
opened them, and the Master Othman attended his opening,
and the King Alij Mohammed' This suggested that the pyramid
may have been entered six to eight centuries earlier. Bones
found in the sarcophagus later proved to be those of a bull.

Caviglia explored Davision's Chamber in the Great Pyramid hoping to find a secret room, but found instead solid rock. In 1817, he descended into the vertical shaft known as the 'well'. Breathing difficulties halted him, in spite of attempts to clear the air by burning sulphur. Caviglia then decided to work down through the Descending Passage. After clearance allowed him to pass about 60 m (200 ft), he smelled sulphur and realized he had found an opening to the 'well'. Thus Caviglia was able to demonstrate that the well was probably a shaft linked to the Descending Passage for the ancient women to escape after the Ascending Passage had been sealed. Caviglia also found the unfinished Subterranean Chameber.
Henry Salt later paid Caviglia to excavate the Sphinx. In the course of this work, Caviglia found a small open-air chapel between the monument's forepaws, with the famous Stela of Thutmose IV. Caviglia also found fragments of the beard of the Sphinx; one piece is now in the British Museum.
The promising career of this dedicated, hardorking amateur ended after a brief collaboration with Colonel Howard Vyse who came to Egypt in 1835. Vyse had employed Caviglia to assist him in his explorations of the Egyptian pyramids an

Ancient Egypt History: Giovanni Battista, Belzoni and Caviglia