In the 4th century, the Christian emperor Theodosius I ordered the closure of all pagan temples in the Roman Empire. This entailed irreversible consequences, in particular, already at the end of the century, Egyptian hieroglyphic writing completely went out of use, They, like the entire grandiose era of Pharaonic Egypt, were forgotten for several centuries. Only Bonaparte's expedition and the result of her scientific work - the magnificent "Description of Egypt" - aroused interest in Europe in the monuments of the great civilization of the past. The decoding of hieroglyphs by young Champollion in 1822 marked the beginning of the birth of the science of Egyptology. Jean Vercutte introduces the reader to numerous episodes of the "discovery of Ancient Egypt," including the transportation of the obelisk from the Luxor Temple to the Place de la Concorde in Paris and the sensational discovery of Tutankhamun's treasures.