Gustave Flaubert is a French writer from the 19th century - most famous for his novel 'Madame Bovary' - that travelled extensively throughout Greece and Egypt from 1848 to 1850. Flaubert was born on December 12th 1821 in Rouen, France and studied Law in Paris.
With his lifelong friend and writer and photographer Maxime du Camp, he traveled in Brittany in 1846. In 1849-1850 they went on a long journey to the Middle East, visiting Greece, Egypt, Constantinopel and Nubia. He returned to 'the Orient' in 1858 in 1858 to conduct research for his novel Salammbô at Carthage.
Flaubert's correspondence during his stay in Egypt is published as 'Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour'. Du Camp published 'Souvenirs et paysages d'orient' and 'Egypte, Nubie, Palestine, Syrie' on their journeys.
Egypt has decided to suspend all archaeological cooperation with the Louvre, after the French museum refused to return fragments of a Theban Tomb. The news was confirmed today by Dr. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's antiquities department. The artefacts were excavated in a tomb near Luxor, and according to Dr. Hawass were stolen by the French. This decision endangers planned conferences at the Louvre, as well as the French team's current excavations at Saqqara, the 'city of the dead'. A boycott of the Louvre's Egyptological activities also ensures no archeological expeditions sponsored by the French museum could go ahead in Egypt.
Jean-Pierre Houdin is a French architect best known for propogating a particular theory about the construction of the Egyptian pyramids - basically that they were built from the inside out - that many believe will soon be proven true.
He was born in Paris, France in 1951, and raised in Abidjan, Africa, where his father worked as a civil engineer. He studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, then after graduation set up as an independent architect in 1976. It was his father who, in 1999, first began to develop the idea that the pyramids were constructed internally rather than externally, using ramps. Houdin joined his father in attempting to prove this theory, using his expertise in architecture and 3D graphics.
Research at the Great Pyramid of Giza - which has turned up one of the corner notches that they hypothesised was used for turning stone blocks - has thus far appeared to prove their theory, although some experts still write it off as being over-complex. It is hoped that new research in the next year or two, using infrared photography of the pyramid cooling in the evening, will turn up irrefutable evidence of an internal spiral ramp that was used to raise the stone blocks.
It was discovered at the base of Bordeaux's city walls at 7 rue Guillaume-Brochon. Its inscription has disappeared, but we can still see the bust of a woman holding in her right hand a scale with a weight and a double hook suspension. The left hand holds a mirror, which was frequently used on the funerals steles of deceased women.
This stele was discovered at the base of the city walls at 7 rue Guillaume-Brochon, Bordeaux. The sculptor Amabilis figure is dressed in a tunic and his head covered with a headdress. He sits on a bench. He is portrayed as about to strike with a mallet in his right hand.
This statue of the magistrate of the city was part of the first remains preserved from the Roman inhabitants of the city of Bordeaux. It was discovered in the 16th century, and is on of the earliest excavated pieces in the Musee d'Aquitaine.
