Adventures in Egypt and Nubia: The Travels of William John Bankes (1786-1855) - Hardcover

Adventures in Egypt and Nubia tells the story of the pioneer Egyptologist William John Bankes (1786-l855). A brilliant and volatile man, Bankes was the unexpected heir of the Kingston Lacy estate in Dorset, whose passion for exploration and discovery was surpassed only by his energy in investigating and recording.
Handsome, rich, and confident, Bankes studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he met Byron who became a lifelong friend, before setting out on the Grand Tour. A period spent in Spain and Portugal was followed by travels in the Near East, where a chance encounter with the Swiss explorer J. L. Burckhardt would inspire Bankes with a desire for serious archaeological research, far beyond the more leisurely pursuits of the average gentleman-traveller.
During the years 1815-19 Bankes criss-crossed Egypt and the Near East amassing a vast portfolio of notes and manuscripts, as well as drawings by his own hand and the artists who accompanied him on his novels. The accuracy and detail of Bankes's collection makes it an invaluable record of ancient monuments now lost or damaged. His extraordinary discoveries were a revelation to contemporary scholars and proved instrumental in the race to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.

William John Bankes (1786-1855) was a brilliant and remarkable man: rich, charming, witty and good-looking, he studied Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a close and lifelong friend of Byron. In 1812 he went to Spain and Portugal to pursue a Bohemian lifestyle among the gypsies. This was followed by travels in the Near East, where he sought out danger and excitement, from clandestine trips to the forbidden mosque in Jerusalem to the very real perils attending early travellers in Egypt and Nubia. Bankes amassed a vast portfolio of notes, manuscripts and drawings by the artists who accompanied him on his Egyptian travels. Their extremely high degree of accuracy makes them a very valuable record of the ancient monuments, many of which have since been damaged or lost. His intuitive detective work and the many copies of hieroglyphic inscriptions he accumulated were instrumental in the struggle to decipher hieroglyphs. Bankes spent his later years in self-imposed exile in Italy to avoid the repercussions of a charge brought against him for a homosexual offence involving a guardsman in Green Park. His art collection and an obelisk he removed from Philae remained at Kingston Lacy, the family seat in Dorset, where the drawings and manuscripts from his Egyptian travels also languished in a cabinet, unpublished and forgotten. This book tells Bankes' story, describing his travels in detail and assessing his contribution to Egyptology.