Invasion of Egypt: How Napoleon’s Desert Campaigns Birthed Egyptology

A long while before Indiana Jones was depicted discovering the Ark of the Covenant in Cairo in that famous franchise, a young, ambitious, French soldier by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in 1798. The consequence resulted in a great archaeological and linguistic revolution that would result in the field of Egyptology and would revolutionize how we view ancient historiography. 

The General and His Campaign

Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica, recently acquired by the French government a year before his birth in 1768. He would spend his formative years at the prestigious École Militaire (Military Academy), starting in 1784, eventually graduating and taking a commission as an artillery officer in the French Army. Also gaining momentum at this time was the French Revolution, and along with many others, Napoleon himself was swept up in its hysteria.

After a couple of years of brutal conflict and soaring up the ranks of the French military, Napoleon had set his sights on an important geographical area – Egypt.

Author J. Christopher Herold writes in, The Age of Napoleon:

“The Ottoman Empire, they [the Foreign Office] pointed out, was breaking up; if France did not secure her share in time, Russia and Austria would swallow up the whole…. Militarily, the operation was easy; a few thousand troops would suffice.”

Thus, the rationale for invasion was set, and the invasion began.

Napoleon Bonaparte talking with scientists on the Egyptian expedition. (Public Domain)

On to Egypt!

On May 19, 1798, Napoleon and the main fleet sailed from Toulon, France, to its destination of Malta. The fleet, consisted of 34,000 ground troops, with many members – 167 of them in total – from the Scientific and Artistic Commission, which included “engineers, mechanics, surveyors, cartographers, interpreters, printers, architects, surgeons, [and] pharmacists”. Also included were “a number of physicists, chemists, mathematicians, astronomers, geologists, zoologists, archaeologists, economists, artists, musicians, and poets”.

Other than the thousands of ground troops, these men would be significant in the (literal) shaping of history. After Malta, they headed for Egypt.

In August 1798, shortly after capturing the city of Cairo, Napoleon established the Institute of Egypt, whose goal was to study and publish Egypt’s political, historical, geographical, and social atmosphere.

At the same time, the now General established the Description de L’Egypte, a publication of Egyptian discoveries that would eventually number ten volumes. Of course, the previously listed civilians who joined the invasion would undertake the work that the Institute would conduct and would accordingly publish their findings in the Description. The result of the Institute and its research would be the birth of Egyptology.

Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt illustration. (Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions)

The Rosetta Stone – The Key to the Egyptian Language

At the time of Napoleon’s Invasion, Egyptian hieroglyphics (the formal Egyptian writing style) were in no way understood. This all changed, however, in July 1799, when French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard found a large black stone slab while digging foundations for military fortifications near the city of Rosetta, thus giving the slab its famous name the “Rosetta Stone.”

The Stone contained writings in three distinct, differing languages: Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Egyptian demotic, which were inscribed by priests in honor of King Ptolemy V at the beginning of the second century BC. Even though the Egyptian languages were not understood yet, it was found in the Greek version, which could be deciphered – that:

“This decree shall be inscribed on a stela of hard stone in sacred [that is hieroglyphic] and native [that is demotic] and Greek characters…”

This was the key that philologists would have in uncovering the true nature of the Egyptian language that was “dead” for two millennia.

Though the Stone would be confiscated by the British after the defeat of the French in 1801, the writings on the Stone were already being viciously studied by French and later British philologists and linguists. Even though some, like the Englishman, Thomas Young, made progress in the Stone’s translation, it wasn’t until 1822 – over 20 years since Rosetta’s discovery – when Frenchman Jean-François Champollion made his breakthrough translation, presented on September 27 of the same year, to an audience that, ironically, included the beaten Young.

Europe’s “Egyptomania”

The result of the translation and of Napoleon’s Campaign was an explosion in the understanding of Ancient Egyptian civilization, and a popularity turned into an historical craze.

Naturally, after Napoleon’s Campaign, a multitude of Egyptian artifacts flooded not only France but also England, after the Capitulation of Alexandria (1801). The European imagination was now one fraught with idyllic scenes of pharaohs, pyramids, great sphinxes, monoliths, and ancient Roman encounters with the Egyptian people.

European museums became filled with mummies, jewels, treasures, cryptic writings, and beautiful ancient art – all of which further contributed to the continent’s interest in their southern neighbor. The British Museum, for example, an institution now plagued by controversy over its Egyptian and other artifacts, was one of many major museums throughout Europe that housed ancient Egyptian exhibits.

This fascination with the Egyptians was most notably personified by the European elite, who fashioned their personal quarters and property with replica architecture from Egyptian antiquity. Also, of course, they bought whatever artifacts they could from Egypt – no matter the price.

A Public Unwrapping of a Mummy (ArcheologyWiki)

Egyptology Today

By the second half of the nineteenth century, however, Egyptomania was finally calming down. The result of Napoleon’s conquests, though, still had enormous effect upon our understanding of world history; it would be radically different without it. Though our craze for Egypt isn’t as strong as it used to be, our fascination for it still perseveres, and we still have many historians, antiquarians, and archaeologists examining ancient Egyptian sites.

It’s not only academics that have an interest in Ancient Egypt, however. The 14.9 million people that visited that country last year (2023) are a testimony to how many ordinary individuals have a fascination with the Egyptian culture, too. This is probably due to the amount of influence that ancient Egypt has claimed the Western entertainment industry, with films such as Cleopatra, The Mummy and many others being notable examples of famous Egyptian adaptations – both fictional and non-fictional.

But no matter if you’re an academic, a child, a parent, or anyone with any occupation, your interest was to some extent ignited by the larger-than-life ambitions of the French General Napoleon Bonaparte.

Top image: Napoleon Bonaparte before the Sphinx.       Source: Jean-Léon Gérôme / Public Domain

By Walker Ramspott