Giovanni Battista Caviglia

[2][3] When he decided to start his career as an explorer, he left his ship moored in Alexandria and offered his services to various collectors.

Between 1816 and 1817, he explored the Great Pyramid of Giza where he made important discoveries, including the descending corridor, the bottom of the well service and unfinished underground room.

During excavations carried out in 1820 on behalf of the British in the ancient capital of Memphis, about 20 km south of Cairo, he made another "sensational" discovery: the Colossus of Ramses II.

Following this, the pasha of Egypt Mehmet Ali gave it to the British Museum in London, which in turn declined the offer for the same reasons.

[4] In 1835, when he was already 65 years old, the British Egyptologists Richard William Howard Vyse and John Shae Perring hired him as an assistant for their excavations at Giza.

The Sphinx of Cairo in Egypt
The Dream Stele of Thutmose IV between the paws of the Sphinx
Fragments of the ceremonial beard of the sphinx kept in the British Museum in London
The colossal statue of Ramses II in the museum specially made at Memphis