Giovanni Battista Belzoni

Giovanni Battista Belzoni was born on 5 November 1778 in Italy, and by the early 19th century had become a prolific explorer and pioneer archaeologist working in Egyptian antiquities. He discovered and documented the tomb of Seti I — still sometimes called "Belzoni's Tomb" — and retrieved its sarcophagus. He was the first to penetrate the Pyramid of Khafre at Giza and the first European in modern times to visit the Bahariya Oasis. His work clearing sand, moving colossal monuments, and mapping royal burial sites laid groundwork that would echo through generations of Egyptology. He died on 3 Dec…