med in
classical authors. Napoleon's great military expedition in 1798 was
accompanied by a scientific commission including artists and
archaeologists, the results of whose labours fill several of the
magnificent volumes of the _Description de l'Egypte_. The antiquities
collected by the expedition, including the famous Rosetta stone, were
ceded to the British government at the capitulation of Alexandria, in
1801. Thereafter Mehemet Ali threw Egypt freely open to Europeans, and a
busy traffic in antiquities began, chiefly through the agency of the
consuls of different powers. From the year 1820 onwards the growth of
the European collections was rapid, and Champollion's decipherments (see
below, S "Language and Writing") of the hieroglyphic inscriptions,
dating from 1821, added fresh impetus to the fashion of collecting, in
spite of doubts as to their trustworthiness. In 1827 a combined
expedition led by Champollion and Rosellini was despatched by the
governments of France and Tuscany, and accomplished a great deal of
valuable work in copying scenes and inscriptions. But the greatest of
such expeditions was that of Lepsius, under the auspices of the
Prussian government, in 1842-1845. Its labours embraced not only Egypt
and Nubia (as far as Khartum) but also the Egyptian monuments in Sinai
and Syria; its immense harvest of material is of the highest value, the
new device of taking paper impressions or "squeezes" giving Lepsius a
great advantage over his predecessors, similar to that which was later
conferred by the photographic camera.

A new period was opened in Egyptian exploration in 1858 when Mariette
was appointed director of archaeological works in Egypt, his duties
being to safeguard the monuments and prevent their exploitation by
dealers. As early as 1835 Mehemet Ali had given orders for a museum to
be formed; little however, was accomplished before the whole of the
resulting collection was given away to the Archduke Maximilian of
Austria in 1855. Mariette, who was appointed by the viceroy Said Pasha
at the instance of the French government, succeeded in making his office
effective and permanent, in spite of political intrigues and the whims
of an Oriental ruler; he also secured a building on the island of Bulak
(Bulaq) for a viceregal museum in which the results of his explorations
could be permanently housed. Supported by the French interest, the
established character of this work as a department of the Egyptian