Napoleon didn’t actually shoot cannons at the pyramids of Egypt
As Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’ opens for the Thanksgiving holiday, scenes from the film’s trailers are shown making waves. That was especially true a sensational display of French troops led by Joaquin Phoenix as the French Emperor fired cannons at the pyramids of Giza.
“I don’t know if he did that,” Mr. Scott said told The Times of London. “But it was a quick way of saying he had taken Egypt.”
There is no evidence that French invaders launched artillery at the pyramids, or that Napoleon’s troops shot the nose off the Sphinx, another popular apocryphal story (there is evidence that the nose was carved out for centuries before the time of Napoleon).
“As far as we know, Napoleon had great respect for the Sphinx and the pyramids and used them as a means to propel his troops to greater glory,” said Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. “He certainly didn’t throw any shots at them.”
While creative freedom is expected in Hollywood biopics, Mr. Scott’s cinematic choices prompted it memes, discussion And dipping lightlyincluding riffs about Napoleon fights mummies.
Some historians have criticized Mr. Scott, but many hope “Napoleon” will spark interest in the events that inspired the film. And while Napoleon did not literally throw projectiles at the pyramids, his invasion of Egypt had a profound effect on Egypt’s cultural heritage and the way the world understands it today.
“In the end the campaign is a defeat — the French lose and are thrown out,” said Alexander Mikaberidze, a professor at Louisiana State University in Shreveport who specializes in Napoleonic history. But Napoleon’s invasion also resulted in a complex scientific and cultural legacy, he added: “the beginning of Egyptology, the beginning of this fascination with Egypt and the desire to explore Egyptian history and Egyptian culture.”
The French campaign in Egypt from 1798 to 1801 was driven by Napoleon’s colonial ambitions and desire to hinder British influence. But in addition to assembling an army of some 50,000 men, Napoleon made the unusual decision to invite more than 160 scholars – in fields such as botany, geology, humanities and others – to guide the invasion.
The scholars documented Egypt’s cultural and natural landscapes, which they eventually compiled into a groundbreaking book 1809 publication which contain detailed mentions of the Giza pyramid complex. This is one of the reasons why historians know that Napoleon visited the pyramids, as shown in Mr Scott’s film, although it is unlikely that he regarded the structures as military targets.
“There was a real interest on the part of the scholars and, I think by extension, a real interest on the part of Napoleon to be able to understand these things that Europeans hadn’t really had unfettered access to since the classical period,” said Andrew Bednarski, a visiting scholar at the American University in Cairo, specializing in Egyptology and 19th-century history.
In their attempt to document Egypt’s vast archaeological heritage, French scholars has seized many important artifacts, including the Rosetta Stone, a rock inscribed with three languages that played an important role in deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stone and many other loot ended up in British hands after the French grip on Egypt collapsed in 1801. By this time Napoleon had returned to France.
After the failed campaign, news of Egypt’s cultural wonders spread throughout Europe and created a new wave of global Egyptomania. This insatiable appetite for Egyptian antiquities has resulted in centuries of exploration, excavation, and exploitation of the region’s vast material culture. Since Napoleon’s invasion, countless artifacts have been removed from Egypt by prospectors and traders, often through clandestine and outright criminal channels.
As a result, many of Egypt’s greatest treasures, including the Rosetta Stone and the bust of Nefertiti, are in museums and private collections far from home. Egypt’s antiquities community has been working for years to repatriate as many artifacts as possible. with some successwhile also developing new strategies to protect its cultural heritage within its borders.
“There are more plans for site management, an increase in the number of museums and an increase in media coverage of antiquities, which is aimed not only at attracting tourists but also at nurturing national pride and educating the general Egyptian public about the significance of their heritage.” said Dr. Ikram.
Egypt has also experienced a resurgence in looting in recent years due to domestic instability. The Antiquities Coalition, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization, estimated that about $3 billion worth of relics had been illegally smuggled out of Egypt after the 2011 revolution. The Institute of Egypt, a research center founded by Napoleon during his invasion of Cairo, burned down in 2011 during the tumult of the Arab Spring. Erosive forces such as pollution and the effects of climate change, including extreme weather, pose another threat to Egypt’s monuments and artifacts.
Napoleon’s ill-fated campaign fueled the modern demand for Egyptian antiquities, which continues to rage today. Mr. Scott’s vision of Napoleon firing cannons at the pyramids of Giza is merely a continuation of this long-standing impulse to co-opt Egyptian symbols and market them to new audiences. Many experts have criticized the inaccuracies in the film – prompting an expletive-laden response from Mr. Scott. But some see in “Napoleon” the opportunity to reexamine the polarizing French emperor’s lasting impact on the world.
“Anything that could spark people’s interest in the history of Egyptology, the effects of colonialism around the world, the Enlightenment – all these things – I think is only positive,” said Dr. Bednarski.