Chasing Hieroglyphs: My Journey to Egypt

Jean‐François Champollion, a French literary figure and the man who unlocked the Rosetta Stone's code, finally sets foot in the Egypt he had dreamed of since childhood. In 1828, as Ottoman Egypt reels from war and plague, he journeys up the Nile, racing illness, danger and rival antiquities hunters to read the ancient world in situ for the first time. His diary crackles with urgency: collapsing temples, hidden inscriptions, political intrigue, and the thrill of deciphering history on the monuments themselves. This is the unique and electrifying record of a genius who risked everything to bring a lost civilisation back to life.