BELZONI, Giovanni Battista, one of the most enterprising and successful Egyptian explorers, was born of humble parentage at Padua in 1778. When about eighteen years of age he appears to have removed to Rome, and for a short time became a monk. In 1798 the occupation of the city by the French troops drove him from Rome. He wandered through Holland, and in 1803 came to England. Here for some time he was compelled to find subsistence for himself and his wife, an Englishwoman, by exhibiting on the streets athletic exercises and feats of agility. Through the kindness of Mr Salt, who was ever afterwards his patron, he was engaged at Astley⅛ amphitheatre, and his circumstances soon began to improve. In 1812 he set out on his travels, passing through Lisbon and Madrid to Egypt, where his friend, Mr Salt, was British consul. He was desirous of laying before the pasha Mehemet Ali a hydraulic machine for raising the waters of the Nile. Though the experiment with this engine was successful, the design was abandoned by the pasha, and Belzoni resolved to continue his travels. He visited Thebes and removed with great skill the colossal statue, commonly called young Memnon, which he shipped for England. He also pushed his investigations into the great temple of Edfoo, visited Elephantina and Philae, discovered the temple of Abusimbel, made excavations at Carnac, and opened up a splendid tomb in the Beban-el-Molouk. He was the first to penetrate into the second great pyramid of Ghizeh, and the first to visit the oasis west of Lake Moeris. In 1819 he returned to England and published in the following year a most interesting account of his travels and discoveries. He also exhibited for some time at the Egyptian Hall facsimiles of the great tomb at Beban-el-Molouk. In 1823 he again set ...