Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

DURING 19 T " CENTURY: EGYPT 631
gives us insight into the private life of the people, while
others present to us monuments referring to religious history.
Eight volumes of text accompany the plates, giving
the necessary descriptions. The French publication was
only brought out after
the death of Champollion, and was
arranged in geographical order, according to the plan
adopted in the work of the Napoleonic expedition. Far
more valuable than these volumes of plates are the notes
which Champollion collected and put together during his
travels.
He not only described the monuments which had
been seen, but also furnished a quantity of valuable archaeological
material. It is astonishing to see the amount of
Egyptological knowledge Champollion was enabled to get
together during the short time that he worked, and which
he laid before us in this publication, — the ripest work of
his genius.
During the decade following Champollion's death Europe
was busy deciphering the hieroglyphs, and great pains were
taken to lift the veil covering Egypt's antiquity. In Egvpt
itself the explorations were continued not by expeditions,
but by individuals. The most important of these was carried
on in
the cemetery of Memphis in 1837 by two Englishmen,
the engineer F. E. Perring and Colonel Howard Vvse.
A large number of pyramids, foremost those of Gize, were
examined, accurate measurements taken, and their architecture
studied. In this way a foundation was laid for the
study of an important branch of the Egyptian history of
architecture.
In the mean time the interest of Germany was aroused in
the decipherment of the hieroglvphs, and especially by such
men as Alexander von Humboldt and Karl Josias von
Bunsen. These were thev who moved Friedrich Wilhelm
IV., King of Prussia, who ascended the throne in 1840, to
follow the example set by the French and Italians, and
also to send an expedition to Egypt. In accordance with