Henry Salt (Egyptologist)

He was the youngest of eight children and went to school in Lichfield, Market Bosworth, and then in Birmingham under where his brother John Butt Salt taught.

[2] Salt found a position with the English nobleman George Annesley, Viscount Valentia, travelling as his secretary and draughtsman, recommended by Thomas Simon Butt.

[citation needed] In 1805, Valentia sent Salt on a journey into Ethiopia (then often referred to by Europeans by the exonym Abyssinia) to meet with Wolde Selassie, Ras of Tigray to open up trade relations on behalf of the English.

Salt returned to Ethiopia in 1809 on a government mission to develop trade and diplomatic links with the Ethiopian Emperor Egwale Seyon.

[2] During this venture, Salt took on the side mission of verifying and correcting the information about the region reported by the Scottish traveler, James Bruce many years earlier.

[2] He would go on to publish in 1814, A voyage to Abyssinia, and travels into the interior of that country, executed under the orders of the British government in the years 1809 & 1810, whose contents were on the culture, geography, customs, and topography of Ethiopia.

[4] He also published a collection of drawings entitled Twenty-four Views Taken in St Helena, The Cape, India, Ceylon, Abyssinia and Egypt.

[citation needed] Salt also sponsored the excavations of Thebes and Abu Simbel, personally carrying out significant archaeological research at the pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx which earned him praise from Jean-François Champollion for his ability to decipher hieroglyphs.

In 1825, Mr. Salt published, at his own expense, Essay on Dr. Young's and M. Champollion's System of Hieroglyphics; with some additional discoveries, by which it may be applied to decipher the names of the ancient kings of Egypt and Ethiopia.

While Salt's primary intention was to sell to the British Museum again, this time for a yearly pension of £600 for his service as the Consul, it would ultimately be rejected due to the price.