Belzoni, Giovanni Battista (1773–1823)

Italian collector of Egyptian antiquities. He excavated the temples at Idfu and Karnak, the pyramid of Khafre at El Gîza, and the tomb of Seti I at Luxor to collect antiquities for sale to the British Museum and other institutions.

His methods of excavation have been severely criticized as ruthless and vandalistic, although not untypical of his times, and he fiercely competed for Egyptian works for public display in France and Britain.

Belzoni was born in Padua. In 1803 he came to London, where he worked in a circus. He left for Egypt 1815 with the original intention of selling hydraulic machinery. He died in Nigeria, on a journey to the city of Timbuktu.

He described his adventures in Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia 1820.