The Treasures of Ancient Egypt is a succinct but wide-ranging history of our search for knowledge about Ancient Egypt, a time-traveller's account of the story. It traces the interest in ancient Egypt from imperial Rome through Arab travellers and historians, the Renaissance in Europe, the early travellers and Napoleon's Egyptian expedition to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs by Jean-Francois Champollion in 1822 and the subsequent development of Egyptology as a scholarly subject, right to the present. Memorabilia items include the following: one of the first maps of Egypt made by Paul Lucas over the course of three voyages between 1699 and 1717; papers Relating to to Richard Lepsius' 1840s Prussian expedition to record ancient monuments; Howard Carter's diary recording the day he discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun; and, watercolours by Auguste Mariette produced during his discovery of the Memphite Serapeum in the 1850s.