Vivant Denon's Re-discovery of Ancient Egypt. Part 1

As it was becoming increasingly clear that Murad Bey planned to avoid battle altogether, marching his troops beyond Aswan instead, the French left Esna in a rush. On 2 February 1799 the army came to a halt in Aswan, some 600 miles south of Cairo. The Mamelukes had escaped and as it would be foolish to continue the pursuit, Desaix made arrangements for part of his force to settle down in Aswan.

Denon made his home on Elephantine Island, a small island on the Nile, and since the island was an ancient place of worship there were several temple ruins to investigate. Under the burning sun – it was and still is hot during the day even in February – he left no stone unturned, often literally lying on the surface of the piles of debris as he unearthed roman pottery and coins. Clearly none of the locals took any interest in the archaeological remains. Denon was amazed to see that the posterior Roman, Christian and Arab constructions and artefacts had crumbled and disappeared whilst the Egyptian monuments had stood the test of time.

Elephantine Island was an ancient provincial capital as well as the centre of the Khnum cult, the god who was said to have created mankind on his potter’s wheel. On the island itself the main attraction in Denon’s day was the Temple of Satet, the greater Temple of Khnum in ruins.

In particular the representations of one king caught his attention: that of the 18 th Dynasty king Amenhotep III (r. 1390-1352 BC) who is represented in the company of his wife Tiye, both making offerings to Amun-Ra’s bark. On the right side of the bark, antelope-headed goddess Satet presents Amenhotep III to her consort the ram-headed god Khnum.

The Temple of Satet was later destroyed too (1822) but thanks to a German archaeological mission it has since been reconstructed. One still has to refer to Description de L’Egypte to get a sense of many of the images he enjoyed.