Chasing Hieroglyphs: My Journey to Egypt - Hardcover

by Jean-Francois Champollion (Author), Joyce Tyldesley (Foreword by), Peter A. Clayton (Translator)

As a child Jean-François Champollion had but one fervent wish--to travel to Egypt and solve the mystery of the ancient hieroglyphs. Finally, a brief lull in the Mediterranean war against the Ottoman Sultan offered his expedition a window of a few days in 1828 to disembark. Egypt proved a treacherous place, and not only because it was part of the Ottoman Empire. Champollion's secret diary entries vividly chronicle the dangers, his exhilarated enthusiasm for the subjugated country, and not least the remarkable discoveries that were to found the new science of Egyptology. Of the twelve expedition members only a few survived its hardships. Champollion accomplished his dream, but he, too, paid the price when he died at the age of 41 shortly after returning to France.

Author Biography

Jean-Francois Champollion is the founding father of Egyptology. Dr Joyce Tyldesley is Lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Manchester and acclaimed author of Egypt. She lives in Lancashire. Peter A. Clayton, is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquities of London, Honorary Member of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, who has lectured widely in major museums and universities on Egyptology, archaeology. He wrote bestseller Chronicle of the Pharaohs translated in 15 languages and was managing editor of the British Museum Publications, as well as book reviews editor of The International Review of Ancient Art and Archaeology and Minerva. Martin Rynja is a publisher in London and previously translated Afghanistan by Chris Steel-Perkins.