By the late 1700s Europe had Horapollo's symbols, travellers' sketches and a few obelisks in Rome, but no accurate record of Egypt's monuments. That changed with a war.
Key idea
In 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt, then part of the Ottoman Empire, and brought about 167 scholars, engineers and artists. They measured and drew the monuments, and their results were published as the Description de l'Égypte, from 1809 into the 1820s. The book, and the Rosetta Stone found by the army in 1799, set off the modern study of Egypt.
Why it works
Decipherment and archaeology both need accurate copies. Before 1798, European images of Egypt were often guesses. The French team worked like surveyors: they measured temples, made plans and sections, copied inscriptions and recorded plants, animals and daily life. A scholar in Paris or London could now study a temple at Edfu or Karnak without going there, and compare inscriptions side by side.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 July 1798 | French forces land at Alexandria |
| 21 July 1798 | Battle of the Pyramids; the French take Cairo |
| August 1798 | The British fleet destroys the French fleet at Aboukir Bay (Battle of the Nile); the scholars found the Institut d'Égypte in Cairo |
| July 1799 | Soldiers rebuilding a fort near Rosetta find the Rosetta Stone |
| August 1799 | Napoleon returns to France, leaving his army behind |
| 1801 | The French surrender; under the terms, the stone and other finds go to Britain |
| 1809 onward | The Description de l'Égypte appears in volumes of text and large plates |
Worked example: Who gets the credit?
Did Napoleon's soldiers decipher hieroglyphs?
- Soldiers found the Rosetta Stone in July 1799, and the scholars saw at once that its Greek text might unlock the other two.
- But reading it took more than twenty years of work by others: Thomas Young from 1814, and Jean-François Champollion, who announced his system in 1822.
- The expedition supplied the stone and accurate copies, not the reading.
Answer: No. They found the key; reading it took another two decades.
Worked example: A soldier-artist's book
Vivant Denon, an artist on the expedition, published a best-selling account of his travels with drawings in 1802. Why might historians value the Description above it for studying temples?
- Denon sketched quickly while following the army up the Nile.
- The Description was produced by teams who measured buildings and drew plans to scale, over several years.
- For details like the layout of a temple, a measured plan is better evidence than a quick sketch, though both record monuments that have since been damaged.
Answer: Because its plans and copies were measured, not sketched.
Common mistake
Crediting Napoleon's soldiers with deciphering hieroglyphs. They found the Rosetta Stone in 1799; reading it took until 1822. Keep the two dates apart.
The expedition was a military invasion, and it ended in defeat. The scholarship it produced and the damage of the war are both part of the story.