In this diary, engineer and explorer of Egyptian antiquities Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778-1823), recounts his life story that reads as compellingly as the best fiction. Beginning with his childhood in Padua where he was one of 13 children, moving on to his early adulthood in England where he as member of a circus troupe, and, finally, his later years spent searching for antiquities in Egypt in an era when the desert sands concealed boundless treasures, Belzoni's diary chronicles an extraordinary life. Belzoni's discoveries, including the temple at Abu Simbel, the pyramid of Khafre and the tomb of Seti I, give us insight into a man who has often been underestimated in Egyptology, but who made a fundamental contribution to our knowledge of ancient Egypt. Through his words, readers are given fresh insight into one of the pioneers of Egyptology, later praised by Howard Carter as one of the most remarkable men in the entire history of Archaeology.