Despite this friction, the civilian researchers made some remarkable achievements that led directly to the creation of Egyptology as a scholarly discipline. Considering that archaeology as we know it now did not exist then - indeed, almost none of the modem social sciences had been truly conceived yet - the creation of Egyptology is a remarkable and visionary achievement. Bonaparte arranged for the scholars to have all the necessaryresources to complete their tasks. The headquarters of the Institute consisted of the comfortable and impressive house of a displaced Cairo official. The Institute met in the former drawing room of the harem, while other rooms, terraced gardens and buildings housed the library, museum collections, laboratories and workshops. The workshops, under the direction of Nicholas Conte, produced all the necessary mechanical devices such as parts for the printing press, clocks, and scientific instruments. Intellectually curious, Bonaparte himself frequently observed the experiments of Monge and Berthollet. Bonaparte also did not hesitate to employ the savants to alleviate the problems facing his army when they found themselves completely cut off from France following Admiral Horatio Nelson's victory at the battle of the Nile. J. H. Rose wrote: "Deprived of most of their treasure and many of their mechanical appliances by the loss of the fleet, the savants and the engineers had, as it were, to start from the beginning. Some strove to meet the difficulties of food supply by extending the cultivation of corn and rice, or by the construction of large ovens and bakeries, or of windmills for grinding corn. Others planted vineyards for the future, or sought to appease the ceaseless thirst of the soldiers by the manufacture of a native beer. Foundries and workshops began, though slowly, to supply tools and machines .... saltpetre works were established, and gunpowder was thereby procured for the army with an energy which recalled the prodigies of activity of 1793." While the Institute's accommodations in Cairo were impressive, the research that the scholars did took them far from the comforts of scholarly seclusion, and plunged them into the dangerous unknown territory of Upper Egypt. The first bold scholar to make the trek was Denon, who accompanied Generals Desaix and Belliard on their pursuit of the Mamelukes, the former rulers of Egypt defeated at the battle of the Pyramids. Denon was involved in exploits more reminiscent of a soldier of fortune than of an art historian. Being chased by the native Bedouins or awakening covered in vermin in no way diminished Denon's enthusiasm for capturing the first glimpse of what he described as the birthplace of Western art. He especially praised the solidity of Egyptian architecture, and described the various sites that he viewed as: "... open volumes in which science was unfolded, morality dictated and the useful arts promulgated; everything spoke, every object was animated with the same mind." Denon was not the only savant to have adventures in the course of his work. Bonaparte ordered the formation of two engineering commissions to go to Upper Egypt to study the Nile for the purpose of improving agriculture and to explore sites of interest. Some of the locations they investigated were cramped, dark, thick with bat dung and filled with flammable debris. The engineer Jomard reported that while studying the tombs in the Theban necropolis, he survived falling rocks and an accidental fire, while two of his colleagues had their torches extinguished by a breeze generated by a flock of bats and were lost in the stygian gloom. (They were later rescued.) Many of the savants left moving memoirs describing their astonishing encounters with this lost world. Upon first viewing the Valley of the Kings, the mathematician Louis Costaz wrote: "It is impossible to imagine a more dramatic contrast than that of the two scenes stretched before our eyes; on the one side, solitude, dryness, desolation and death, and on the other, temples, palaces and a beautiful river." Engineer Michel-Ange Lancret struck a Romantic chord upon viewing the ruins near Philae in the moonlight: "...I believed with an emotion of delight and dread that I was on one of the most remarkable places on earth ... which seemed almost mythical [and] took on a overwhelming, almost magical significance. I touched the rocks of cataracts at the gate to Ethiopia, the very limits of the Roman Empire; soon I would arrive at the island where the tomb of Osirus was, once sacred, now abandoned." Denon, who accompanied Desaix's military expedition along the Upper Nile, recorded his emotions concerning the unforgettable moment when Desaix's column unexpectedly came upon the ruins at Karnak and Luxor, where the men spontaneously burst into applause: "I wish to give an idea of this scene to my readers so as to make them share in the feelings I experienced in the presence of such majestic objects, and in the electrifying emotion of an army of soldiers whose refined sensibility made me rejoice in being their companion and proud of being a Frenchman." The scholars were able to study Egypt as none before them had. Not only did they produce hundreds of technical drawings and architectural plans of famous sites, (many later published in the prodigious multivolume treasure Description de l'Egypte) but they also drew imaginative reconstructions of what buildings looked like in antiquity, some of which they later rendered in color. Often protected by military escorts, the savants also entered many abandoned tombs and made detailed records of their decoration and contents. Denon wrote of his efforts to chronicle in pencil sketches his discoveries: I did not have sufficient eyes nor hands, my head did not suffice to see, draw and identify all the objects which struck me. My inadequacy to draw these sublime objects made me feel ashamed." One of the most novel aspects of the savants' work was the interest that they showed in daily life in antiquity, based on genre scenes depicted in tombs. Previously, interest in Egypt had focused on royal monuments, hieroglyphs and religious rites. The tableaux in private tombs near Thebes showed ancient Egyptians engaged in agriculture, fishing, hunting, commerce and other pursuits of common life of the remote civilization. Jomard described the colorful tombs as: "...monuments to the people in the same way that palaces and temple served as monuments to the state.' He predicted quite accurately tha one day scholars interested only if everyday life and customs in ancien Egypt would undertake more thorough study of that topic. To modern students of Egypt, the discovery of tombs brings to mind fabulous treasures of gold and precious stones, but to the French, and those who later followed the trail that they blazed, the mummies manuscripts, statuettes, pottery and visual representations of all manner of utensils, musical instruments, furniture and weapons were extremely valuable, because they revealed previously unknown civilization. Bonaparte's savants certainly deserve credit for stimulating interest in material culture and domestic concerns of the ancient Egyptians. Ultimately, the grandiose visions which transfixed Bonaparte during his Egyptian expedition bore tremendous fruit for posterity [not the least of which was the discovery of the Rosetta stone, to be detailed in a later issue]. His lofty aspirations to follow in Alexander the Great's footsteps have been frequently disparaged by historians who, in hindsight, see the eventual military failure of the expedition as an inevitability. However, in depicting Napoleon as only a ruthless monster of unbridled ambition, his detractors unjustly diminish the complexities of a man who not only had the skill to foster a project as monumental and lasting as that carried out by the savants in Egypt, but also the imagination necessary to conceive it. Melanie Sue Byrd earned a doctorate in European History specializing in the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era from Florida State University in 1992. She currently teaches at Valdosta State University, Georgia. More Napoleon Explores Egypt Napoleon Explores Egypt: Introduction Napoleon Explores Egypt: Organization of Scholars Napoleon Explores Egypt: Achievements of Scholars Napoleon Explores Egypt: Diorama of Ruins Napoleon Explores Egypt: Campaign Medals Related Related: Napoleon in Egypt: Military Operations Back to Table of Contents -- Napoleon #14 Back to Napoleon List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Napoleon LLC. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. The full text and graphics from other military history magazines and gaming magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com Order Napoleon magazine direct