Known also as The Great Belzoni, this Italian explorer of Egyptian antiquities was a prolific discoverer. Originally a circus strongman, he was dispatched by the British consul to Egypt to remove with great skill the colossal bust of Ramesses II, commonly called "the Young Memnon," from the Ramesseum at Thebes. This piece, shipped by Belzoni to England, remains prominently displayed at the British Museum, a testament to his daring and often controversial expeditions into Egypt's past.
Travels in Egypt and Nubia is the travel journal of Giovanni Belzoni, in which he tells the story of three journeys made between 1815 and 1819 and describes the historic monuments of Ancient Egypt, such as the temple at Abu Simbel, the pyramid at Khafre and the tomb of Seti I.