Empress of The Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt's Ancient Temples From Destruction, Olson - B

                     Christiane Desroches was a French Egyptologist born in 1913.  After graduating from the Lycée Moliere in 1930, she studied at the Louvre.  She graduated and went to work on the curatorial staff. In 1937, she went to Egypt for the first time. She worked with an important French team near the Valley of the Kings. "Desroches time at Deir-el-Medina was brief but her experience there...would have a powerful effect on her life and career." She was awarded a three year fellowship at the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo. As the first woman there, her presence caused her male colleagues to protest. Both she and the director concluded she should go 500 miles south to Edfu, the most arduous dig in their program. She had the good fortune to find an unexcavated tomb. Upon her return to Paris, she helped the Louvre evacuate most of its collection to hideaways in the countryside. Throughout the war, she continued to work at the Louvre and also participated in resistance activities. Afterwards, she became  an instructor at the Ecole du Louvre.  In 1952, Nasser took over Egypt and assumed control of the country's antiquities. The man in charge of the Antiquities Service, Mustafa Amer,  asked UNESCO to help run the archaeological affairs of the country. When UNESCO asked who they wanted to manage the UN initiative, the answer was Christiane Desroches. 

                  Amer and Desroches established the Centre d'etudes et documentation d'archeologie Egyptienne (CEDAE). Both realized that the planned construction of the Aswan High Dam, which would flood an area 300 miles to the south, would forever inundate the ancient monuments of Nubia. Both Sudan and Egypt asked the UN for help. Fifty countries contributed to the undertaking. The US viewed the rescue effort as being pro-Nasser and refused to participate, until Jacqueline Kennedy adopted the cause, which the president supported because he wanted to broaden America's concept of foreign aid*. "Ultimately the rescue project, including the transportation and reconstruction of the temples on their new sites, took over twenty years." Desroches brought the Tutankhamun exhibit to the Louvre, where it was seen by over one million people in 1967. A decade later, she arranged for a major Ramses II exhibit in Paris. She retired from the Louvre in 1983 when she turned 70. She embarked on her last great venture in Egypt at the Valley of the Queens. She worked until 1992, when she left the desert for the last time. In retirement, in her 80's, she wrote 11 books, a number of which were bestsellers. When she was 93, a noted producer created an 8 hour documentary about France's great Egyptologist. France granted her the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. She died in 2011. This is a very interesting biography with an excellent dose of Egyptian history.

                     

*The US received the Temple of Dendur in exchange for its generosity. It is a permanent exhibit at the Met in NY.