Egyptomania: The Victorian Obsession with Egypt
Mummy unwrapping parties, the Rosetta Stone, and the "curse" of Tutankhamun: how Egypt became a Victorian (and Edwardian) obsession.
In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, Commander-in-Chief of the Armée d’Orient, invaded Egypt. At the time, Egypt was ruled by the Mamluks and nominally controlled by the Ottoman Empire, but these groups were not Napoleon’s chief rivals. Whoever controlled Egypt controlled the Suez Canal, a crucial shipping route that connected the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. The goal was to undercut British trade routes to the nation’s colonial holdings in India; doing so would give France an enormous territorial advantage.
The Egyptian campaign ultimately failed, but it resulted in a major discovery—one that would transform the field of Egyptology and launch a public mania for all-things-Egyptian.
Several miles from the port city of Rosetta (modern-day Rashid) lies Fort Julien, constructed around 1470 during the rule of the Mamluk Sultan Qaitbay. Then-General Napoleon placed Lieutenant Pierre-François Bouchard in charge of rebuilding the fortress; it wa…
