Bonaparte in Egypt with 160 scholars!
Bonaparte embarked at the end of spring 1798 for Egypt with 50,000 men and 800 horses. Among these men, were 160 scientists, engineers and artists, responsible for studying Egypt in all fields.
Naturalists and biologists are tasked with studying Egyptian flora and fauna. Surveyors must do as many topographical surveys as possible to draw the map of the regions visited. Archaeologists are responsible for studying the architecture and in particular the mysterious pyramids.
If Europe already knows Egypt, it does not know it well, because ancient Egyptian writing has not yet revealed its secrets. It was not until 1821 that Champollion deciphered his first cartouche of hieroglyphs.


Scientists at the service of soldiers
The scientists were taken to Egypt, first to help the soldiers conquer Egypt. Bonaparte knew that the roads would be scarce, poorly maintained, that it would be necessary to manufacture munitions on the spot, to find means to feed themselves ... The help of scientists will be invaluable and the work will not be lacking!
These scholars, many of whom are between 20 and 30 years old, are enthusiastically discovering a culture and society very different from their own. But they also come with the intention of sharing European scientific knowledge with the Egyptians. It must be said that the observation made on the spot is bitter for these Westerners: "When we arrived in Egypt, we were all struck with astonishment, finding an immense people deprived of things useful or agreeable to life, and struggling, for lack of the simplest instruments, against all kinds of difficulties. "


The Egyptian Institute
In August 1798, Bonaparte created the Institute of Egypt. This institute has for president the learned Monge and for vice-president the general Bonaparte. It brings together all the scientists of the expedition and is divided into four sections according to specialties: "mathematics", "physics", "political economy", "literature and the arts".
The Egyptian Decade newspaper was created at the same time to report on Institute sessions and provide information on scientific discoveries.
But the Egyptians do not yet know the printing press. The French organize one to publish newspapers, dictionaries, brochures and posters, in order to inform and communicate with the French and Egyptian population. Block letters in the Arabic alphabet are therefore made. The Egyptians are discovering how quickly a book can be printed.

Many discoveries
The scientists' mission is to gather as much information as possible about Egypt, they will make many discoveries. The scholar Monge deciphers the mirage phenomenon, the naturalist Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire reveals the existence of unknown fish, and the designer Redouté draws all the botanical species encountered. The engineers Jollois and Devilliers carry out a detailed survey of numerous monuments in Thebes, Karnak, Abydos, Antaepolis.
The French also have a lot to learn from the Egyptians. Some practices and machines will be exported to France. Thus, in Egypt, plaster is worked in a mill, making life easier for the craftsman, while in France, it is still worked with the arm. The Egyptians also developed a system of "chicken ovens", an artificial incubator for rearing chicks. The French are also very interested in jars that keep drinks cold for several days.
But all this work is not done without difficulty because the living conditions are difficult, with overwhelming heat (50 ° C in the sun!). The population is sometimes hostile, it does not always understand this intrusion into their daily life. And we must not forget that the soldiers set out to conquer and that the fighting is raging.


A scientific success and a military failure
While this expedition was scientifically successful, it was a failure on a military level, especially with the loss of the French fleet sunk by Nelson at Aboukir. the French surrendered to the English on September 2, 1800, and had to leave Egypt from August 30, 1801: the English requisitioned the discoveries of French scientists and in particular one of the most important, the Rosetta Stone. It is now in London, at the British Museum. It is a cast that was used by Frenchman Champollion, a few years later, to decipher ancient Egyptian writing: hieroglyphics.

The Description of Egypt
From this scientific expedition, scholars have established one of the finest works on Egypt: The Description of Egypt. Published between 1809 and 1828, this twenty-volume work helped to put an end to the misconceptions that the West had about the East. Long-term work, placed under the direction of Vivant Denon (who would become the director of the Napoleon Museum in Paris), the Description de l'Egypte is an inventory of Egypt from the beginning of the 19th century with diagrams, drawings, maps of everything. what makes up Egypt. This work remains an important source for all Egyptologists today.