A statue of Auguste Mariette in his home city of Boulogne-sur-Mer.

The French scholar and archaeologist Auguste Ferdinand François Mariette (February 11, 1821 – January 19, 1881) was the foremost Egyptologist of his generation, and the founder of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1952x2592, 1129 KB) // Summary Content A statue of Auguste Mariette in his home city of Boulogne-sur-Mer. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1952x2592, 1129 KB) // Summary Content A statue of Auguste Mariette in his home city of Boulogne-sur-Mer. ... Boulogne-sur-Mer is a city and commune in northern France, in the Pas-de-Calais département of which it is a sous-préfecture. ... February 11 is the 42nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1821 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Main entrance of the Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to the most extensive collection of pharaonic antiquities in the world. ... Modern Cairo Cairo (Arabic: ‎ translit: ) is the capital city of Egypt (and previously the United Arab Republic) and has a metropolitan area population of approximately 15. ...

Born at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Mariette proved to be a talented draftsman and designer, and he supplemented his salary as a teacher at Douai by giving private lessons and writing on historical and archaeological subjects for local periodicals. Boulogne-sur-Mer is a city and commune in northern France, in the Pas-de-Calais département of which it is a sous-préfecture. ... Douai is a city and commune in the north of France in the département of Nord, of which it is a sous-préfecture. ...

Meanwhile his cousin Nestor L'Hote, the friend and fellow-traveller of Champollion, died, and the task of sorting his papers filled Mariette with a passion for Egyptology. He devoted himself to the study of hieroglyphics and Coptic. His 1847 analytic catalogue of the Egyptian Gallery of the Boulogne Museum got him a minor appointment at the Louvre Museum in 1849. Entrusted with a government mission for the purpose of seeking and purchasing Coptic, Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic manuscripts for the national collection, he set out for Egypt in 1850. Jean-François Champollion For the Champollion comet rendezvous spacecraft, see Champollion (spacecraft). ... It has been suggested that Hieroglyph (French Wiki article) be merged into this article or section. ... Coptic is the last phase of ancient Egyptian. ... I.M. Peis Louvre Pyramid: one of the entrances to the galleries lies below the glass pyramid. ... Syriac ( Suryāyā) is an Eastern Aramaic language that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. ... The Arabic language (Arabic: ‎ translit: ), or simply Arabic (Arabic: ‎ translit: ), is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Geez (also transliterated Giiz, , and pronounced IPA ; ISO 639-2 gez) is an ancient language that developed in the Ethiopian Highlands of the Horn of Africa as the language of the peasantry. ...

In 1851, soon after his arrival, he made his celebrated discovery of the avenue of sphinxes that led to ruins of the Serapeum near the step-pyramid at Saqqara and eventually the subterraneous catacombs with their spectacular sarcophagi of the Apis bulls. Instead of manuscripts, official French funds were now advanced for the prosecution of his researches, and he remained in Egypt for four years, excavating, discovering — and despatching archaeological treasures to the Louvre, as was the accepted Eurocentric convention. He was raised to an assistant conservator at the Louvre when he returned to Paris. The Great Sphinx of Giza, with the Pyramid of Khafre in the background. ... Serapis can refer to: A series of British ships named HMS Serapis. ... Saqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, featuring the worlds oldest standing step pyramid. ... Stone sarcophagus of Pharaoh Merenptah Detail of a stone sarcophagus in the Istanbul Archeological Museum showing a hunting scene Anthropoid sarcophagus discovered at Cádiz A sarcophagus is a stone container for a coffin or body. ... In Egyptian mythology, Apis or Hapis (alternatively spelt Hapi-ankh), was a bull-deity worshipped in the Memphis region. ...

Soon a genuine opportunity worthy of his energy and talent opened: in 1858 the position of conservator of Egyptian monuments to Ismail Pasha was created for him, and he moved with his family to Cairo. His career blossomed into a chronicle of unwearying exploration and brilliant successes: the museum at Bula; the pyramid-fields of Memphis and Saqqara; the necropolis of Meidum, and those of Abydos and Thebes; the great temples of Dendera and Edfu were disinterred; important excavations were carried out at Karnak, Medinet-Habu and Deir el-Bahri; Tanis (the Egyptian capital in the Late Period) was partially explored in the Delta; and even Gebel Barkal in Sudan. He cleared the sands around the Sphinx down to the bare rock, and in the process discovered the famous granite and alabaster monument, the "Temple of the Sphinx". Mariette's success was aided by the fact that no rivals were permitted to dig in Egypt. The reign of Muhammad Ali and his successors over Egypt was a period of rapid reform and modernization that led to Egypt becoming one of the most developed states outside of Europe. ... Memphis was the ancient capital of the first nome of Lower Egypt, and of the Old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 1300 BC. Its Ancient Egyptian name was Ineb Hedj (The White Walls). The name Memphis is the Greek deformation of the Egyptian name of Pepi I... Saqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, featuring the worlds oldest standing step pyramid. ... Located about 100km south of modern Cairo, Meidum is the location of a large pyramid, and several large mud-brick mastabas. ... Abydos, one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt, stood about 11 km (6 miles) west of the Nile at latitude 26° 10 N. The Egyptian name was Abdju (technically, 3bdw, hieroglyphs shown to the right), the hill of the symbol or reliquary, in which the sacred head of... Thebes [Θηβαι ThÄ“bai] is the Greek designation of ancient Egyptian niwt (The) City and niwt-rst (The) Southern City. It is located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the Nile (25. ... Entrance to the Dendera Temple Complex, photographed 23rd December 2003 Dendera (also spelled Denderah), is a little town in Egypt. ... The front of the Edfu Temple The first pylon at Edfu Temple Statue of Horus, Edfu Temple Edfu (also spelt Idfu or in modern French as Edfou and known in antiquity as Behdet) is an Egyptian city, located on the west bank of the River Nile between Esna and Aswan... Obelisk at Karnak temple El-Karnak is a small village in Egypt, located on the banks of the River Nile some 2. ... Medinet Habu from the air Medinet-Habu is the mortuary temple of Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses III. It is located on the west bank of the River Nile at Thebes, Egypt, south of the morturary temple of Tutankhamun/Horemheb. ... Djeser-Djeseru – the focal point of the complex Deir el-Bahri (Arabic دير البحري dayr al-baḥrÄ«, literally meaning, “The Northern Monastery”) is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. ... or Tanis (Τάνις), the Greek name of ancient Djanet (modern صان الحجر Ṣān al-Ḥaǧar), is a city in the north-eastern Nile delta of Egypt (30°58′N 31°52′E). ... ôľĎÚ The Late Period of Egypt refers to the last flowering of native Egyptian rulers after the Third Intermediate Period, and before the Persian conquests. ... Jebel Barkal or Gebel Barkal is a small mountain located some 400 km north of Khartoum, in Sudan, on a large bend of the Nile River, in the region called Nubia. ... The Great Sphinx of Giza, with the Pyramid of Khafre in the background. ...

Mariette's relations with the Khedive were not always stable. The Khedive, like many potentates, assumed all discoveries ranked as treasure and that what went to the museum in Cairo went only at his pleasure. Khedive (from Persian for lord) was a title created in 1867 by the Ottoman Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz for the then-governor of Egypt, Ismail Pasha. ...

In 1869 Mariette, on request of the Khedive, wrote the scenario for an opera, based on an ancient Egyptian tale. The following year this scenario was proposed to Giuseppe Verdi, who accepted it as subject his famous opera Aida, premiered at the new Cairo Opera House on the 24 december 1871. For this production Mariette designed the scenery and costumes, inspired to the art of Ancient Egypt. Khedive (from Persian for lord) was a title created in 1867 by the Ottoman Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz for the then-governor of Egypt, Ismail Pasha. ... Giuseppe Verdi, by Giovanni Boldini, 1886 (National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome). ... Aida is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a story by Auguste Mariette. ...

Mariette was raised successively to the rank of bey and pasha, and European honors and orders were showered on him. Though not all his discoveries were thoroughly published, the list of his publications is a long one. He died in Cairo and was interred in a sarcophagus. Bey is the Turkish word for chieftain, traditionally applied to the leaders of small tribal groups. ... Pasha (or pascha, bashaw; Turkish: paşa) originally from Persian padshah or padeshah meaning king) was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire political system, typically granted to governors and generals. ... Stone sarcophagus of Pharaoh Merenptah Detail of a stone sarcophagus in the Istanbul Archeological Museum showing a hunting scene Anthropoid sarcophagus discovered at Cádiz A sarcophagus is a stone container for a coffin or body. ...

External links

• The Monuments of Upper Egypt, 1877: (excerpt: discovery of the Serapeum, in English)
• Egyptology website: Mariette in context of other 19th century Egyptologists
• Mariette and the Serapeum at Saqqara
• egypt4eternity.com Information on the Mariette Pacha exhibition at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France - 2004